Unwritten
by ShatteredLyre
Summary: Ren is coerced into the drama department, Lyserg hates tea, Jeanne makes herself heard, Anna deals with a crisis, Yoh gets a job, Pirika is jittery and Horohoro takes a chance, all while Tamao is trying to figure out this thing they call “high school"
1. September

_Kyoyama Household_

_Beep. Beep. Beep._

"Unghh. Just five more minutes," Tamao Tamamura groaned, slapping in vain at her alarm clock to no avail. She sleepily squinted into the bright sunlight that was filtering in small slits through her blinds into her bedroom. "'S too early," she slurred. She sighed, flipping onto her stomach and burying her face into her pillow. Tamao covered her ears and pulled her blanket over her head in an effort to drown out piercing noise, her pink hair the only thing visible above the covers.

_Beep. Beep. Bee - Crash._

"Hunh?" She reluctantly opened her eyes and blinked a few times to get her eyes to adjust to the harsh morning light

"Get. Up. Now," ordered her fully dressed cousin, dusting her hands off and closing the window after the offending alarm clock had hit the pavement outside. "I refuse to allow you to make us late for the first day of school. Your breakfast is waiting for you downstairs. I expect you to be ready and in the car in ten minutes…Or else," Anna said mechanically, emphasizing her point with her trademark glare.

"Y-Yes, Anna. I'm on it," Tamao squeaked. That certainly woke her up. Who needs caffeine when you get to see a severely pissed off Anna at seven in the morning? Tamao exhaled as she unthinkingly pulled her sheets over her bed and firmly creased them on the sides, scooting around the edge of her bed to go on to fluff the pillows. "How can." Thump. "Anna_._"Thump. "Be so awake_._" Thump. "In the morning?" Thump, thump.

Later on, with her eyes half closed and still groggy from her sudden wake up call, she brushed her teeth and combed her hair in an attempt to make herself presentable and decent enough to be seen in public without causing any emotional scarring. Tamao furrowed her brow as she looked over her efforts in the mirror. "Why can't my hair be as nice and straight and pretty as Anna's?" Tamao unhappily sighed to herself as she touched her perpetually flipped up locks. "It's always so poofy…Anna's lucky hers is so smooth and perfect all the time."

Still frowning, Tamao splashed some ice cold water on her face and shook her head. _It seems that all I do is complain that I'm not Anna. But then again, Anna has a lot for me to be jealous of. Like her determined attitude, her looks, Y-_ Tamao cut herself off before her mind could drift back to that painful memory. She paused and stared at the water draining down the pipe in the sink and finished thinking that one syllable, a simple three letter word that meant more to her than anything else in the world. "I'm just being silly now," Tamao stated dismissively, watching as the distorted pink reflection of herself swirled down the drain and disappeared. She closed her eyes and went back to her tedious routine.

She only snapped out of it when she changed out of her rose colored pajamas. Tamao stepped back and admired her new outfit in the mirror. One of the perks of going to a private school was the absolutely gorgeous uniform. Tamao smiled uncomfortably. "Well, I don't really know how other uniforms looked like since this is my first year going to school." Tamao had no formal education, a lá Lindsey Lohan in that one movie she couldn't quite remember at the moment, on account of her mother traveling the world ever since her husband died. Her mother insisted on home schooling Tamao herself since she didn't like those "stodgy institutions that deprive children of real world experiences and learning." Nevertheless, Tamao and Mrs. Tamamura had a lot of fun, falling asleep on the plane to Laos one day and waking up in Paraguay the next, thus giving Tamao one of the most unforgettable and colorful childhoods a girl could ever hope to have. But, as they say, all good things must come to an end. Her mother was diagnosed with cancer a couple of years ago and finally passed away last winter. Mrs. Tamamura's sister, Anna's mother, adopted Tamao as her own and now they all live together as a happy family (well, as happy a family could get when living with Anna, anyways).

Honk, honk, honk, honk. "TAMAO!! I said ten minutes! Not ten hours! Get in the car already!" Anna screamed from outside, banging her fists against the car horn, her eyebrow twitching. Tamao gathered her school things, grabbed a slightly burnt piece of toast with jam, stuffed her notebook into her bag, and kissed her auntie good-bye faster than Anna could insult some loser to tears at school (which, by the way, was extremely fast). "Bye, auntie!"

"Have a good day in school, Tamao!" her aunt called from the kitchen door. The pink haired girl waved back, stuffing the toasted bread into her mouth as she muffled out a response. Tamao settled into Anna's newly refurbished car seats, doing her best to avoid the death-stares her cousin was shooting her at the moment as they pulled out of the drive way and zoomed down the road. Despite the hectic morning, Tamao inwardly grinned and decided that today would, in fact, be a good day.

* * *

_Usui Household_

In which the two Usui siblings are engaged in an epic battle - a battle to see who can have the longest, angriest rant.

"PIRIKA! Crap…what're you doing in there, thawing the North Pole with your freakin' blow dryer?! Yeah, I think I know what the sole cause of global warming is and its name is PIRIKA!" Horohoro yelled, his words being drowned out by the shrill screams of said blow dryer. "Come ON! We're gonna be late! Don't you want to see your precious Satoshi?" The door flew open with a bang, revealing an upset Pirika with her hair only half straightened and an eyelash curler poised in her hand.

"Horohoro! You know very well this isn't a blow dryer; it's a hair dryer, jerk-off! Hmph, why are you so mad anyways? I've only been in here for fifty-seven minutes, so shut up," the girl said as she repositioned her dryer's nozzle in an effort to avoid split ends. She rolled her eyes as she noticed her brother was still standing there, smoldering. "Who's Satoshi anyways? Never mind, I need to concentrate on warming my curler up. Go and do something…productive," Pirika said impatiently as she continued to fiddle around with her blower—erm—hair dryer.

Horohoro stood only half-dressed, showing no intent on doing anything remotely productive while his little sister turned their second story bathroom into a full fledged beauty salon. He stepped inside and waved his hand in front of her face (which was quite an impressive feat, considering there were a million things sticking out of her hair and head).

"Uh, he's the football captain. The guy you've been dating for, oh I don't know, the PAST YEAR—Damnit, Pirika, I don't have time for this! You're still in your pajamas, it's the first day of school, we're already going to be late, I need to call a mandatory newspaper staff meeting during first period, I haven't even taken a shower yet, you—whoa, girl!" Horohoro retreated a couple of steps backwards with his hands up in mock surrender, his angry soliloquy effectively interrupted. "Watch where you wave that thing! Jeez, you could gouge someone's eye out with that! What kind of weapon is that anyways?" He attempted to extract the eyelash curler from Pirika's death grip, only to have his hands brutally slapped at by the angry Ainu girl. Horohoro nursed his wounds and pointed an accusing finger at the metal vise.

"God, it looks like a flippin' torture device they use in concentration camps to get prisoners of war to talk!" Pirika's once busy movements came to a halt. She dropped her hair dryer and slowly turned around to face her brother, the atmosphere becoming quite icy all of a sudden.

_Ooh, I probably shouldn't have said that._

Pirika's usually bright blue eyes narrowed and her face flushed. She put down the "weapon" and pushed Horohoro outside.

"Get out, you FREAK! Why did you even come in here, you perv! And how dare you call my eyelash curler a torture device! It's Shu Uemura, but you wouldn't know that now would you? I spent my whole month's allowance to buy this, and what do you do? You just come over here and INSULT it! Why would you ever DO that? Why? Oh let me answer that for you, smart one. You would do something that idiotic because you're an UNeducated, INsensitive, dumb, STUpid di-"

Horohoro clamped his sister's mouth shut with his palm. "Uh, I think I'm gonna do something productive now. Now you have fun with your shoe ew mirror eyelash whatever thing. Later," Horohoro sprinted back to his room before his sister exploded like a bottle of Diet Coke and Mentos on YouTube. "Hmm, I guess I won't be taking a shower today so I might as well look and smell clean…" he said while simultaneously shutting his door to drown out his sister's screams of "It's Shu Uemura, retard!"

He glanced at his digital clock on his dresser which was partially obscured by numerous snowboarding magazines and dirty socks: 7:27 a.m. "CRAP!" School starts in 18 minutes, the drive alone takes 25. He slapped some Axe on and found his uniform crumpled on the floor of his closet. After grabbing his notebook, he raced down the stairs, coming close to breaking his neck as he kicked open the front door and dove into the driver's seat of his car.

_Maybe if I begged and groveled and explained everything, Anna won't kill me. Maybe if I paid her. Money fixes everything, everyone knows that! Yeah, I'll just keep throwing money at her general direction so I won't have to look at her and see what kind of punishment she has in store for me. And Anna likes money…I think. Who wouldn't like money? Everyone who is normal likes money so…wait, I forgot. Anna isn't normal. Well, I mean it's the first day of school, I'm sure she'll be nice...right?_ Horohoro began rocking back and forth in his seat, sweating just at the thought of the various ways Anna could torture him for this glaring mistake on his behalf. He could already hear his own screams of pain as she probably beat him to death. With his own arm. Which she would have somehow dismembered prior to the beating. _What am I talking about…Joco already told me last year that she has a whole arsenal of torture devices in her locker for easy access—__No! I'm not going to let this happen! I already decided that this is going to be a good day! It IS going to be a good day!_

Horohoro closed the car door and revved up the engine, ready to go but—"Damnit! Pirika!" He punched the steering wheel in frustration. He got out of the car, ready to break down the bathroom door, put his little sister in a straitjacket, and stash her in the trunk when…

"What did I do this time?" Pirika asked from the passenger's seat as she pulled out a compact mirror to examine her handiwork.

Horohoro jumped in his seat and screamed. "What the hell?! When did this-? How did you-? Weren't you just in-? Where did you-? What happened to-? …Mah?" Somehow Pirika had eaten breakfast, changed, brushed her teeth, showered, fixed her hair, put on her makeup, and gotten into the car before Horohoro could. Basically, he looked like a hobo off the streets while she looked like a million bucks, just like one of the models in the Prada ads in Vogue.

"Just drive before you hurt yourself. You know that thinking is bad for you, big brother (on account of you not having a brain)! So what are you waiting for?"

"I'm trying to figure out how I know what the models in Vogue look like and why I even know what Prada is—aw, screw it! Let's go." Needless to say, Horohoro floored it, all the way to school (traffic regulations and pedestrians be damned…) and somehow they made it just in time for the five-minute warning bell.

* * *

_Funbari High School_

"…participate in at least two activities or clubs each semester. Or they'll keep sending you annoying letters and messages that can really clog up your inbox--Tamao are you even listening to me?" the blonde finally looked over at Tamao. Her cousin was currently turning her head from side to side, making her head look like a pink blur. _Well, it is her first day in school so I could only expect her to try to take in and see as much as possible…but then again, she keeps whacking that poor freshman walking behind her._ "If you keep whipping your head around like that, you could permanently blind someone with your hair…not that it would be a bad thing," Anna added darkly. The ice queen glanced back at the tiny freshman for a moment, but that second was enough for Anna to see the immense amount of relief wash over the first year student.

Tamao blushed and apologized profusely to the gray haired girl and turned back to Anna. "Oh, sorry Anna, it's just, well…so big. I didn't even imagine that one place could get so busy all at once. B-But," Tamao stammered, turning roughly the same color as her hair, "Why are there so many tables and signs all over the grass?" She looked down to the floor immediately, obviously embarrassed to ask such a question.

Anna's natural leader in her took over. "The grassy area with the tables is referred to as the 'quad.' The various signs and tables are for the different clubs and organizations that new students, incoming freshman, and returning students can go to so they can sign up for the activities. Funabari High expects each student to. Understand?"

Tamao looked at her older cousin. "Which ones are you in?"

The blond looked slightly surprised that Tamao had asked that. "W-Well, I'm the president of the Student Government, the head of the Spirit Committee, treasurer of the Environment Club…oh, almost forgot. I'm the editor-in-chief and student manager of the Literary and School News Collaboration, _The Shooting Star_."

"Anna! I never knew that you were so involved in the school! You're the leader for most of the clubs you're in and on the Student Council?" Tamao was noticeably impressed. "What's _The_ _Shooting Star_?"

"It's the Literary and School New-" Anna stopped herself when she saw that Tamao wasn't following. She rolled her eyes and tersely said, "It's the school newspaper." Anna held up her hand to silence Tamao's inevitable _Why don't you just call it the newspaper?_ "I prefer not to use such a term because it implies an office setting with rank and power which can stifle current members' creativity and rob them of a sense of identity. Well... and Literary and School News Collaboration, or LASNC sounds more professional."

"You never told me that you were the editor-in-chief of the school newspaper!" Tamao looked hurt.

"You never told me that you were interested in joining newspaper," Anna simply stated while Tamao pursed her lips. "Well, I suppose that you like writing, you always carry around your notebook. And you _did_ ask me about the school newspaper over the summer…I guess I forgot to tell you. If you still want to join, then visit the LASNC table for sign-ups during free period. Don't worry," Anna said dryly. "Don't worry, there won't be a long line," she added, thinking of how much she scared the living crap out of anyone she came into contact with. "As for me, I'll be manning the booth with Miss Jun, the moderator and faculty manager of LASNC...and the only teacher smart enough to actually let her class learn. Now be a good little Tamao and run along to the front office to check in." And just like that, Anna was gone, leaving Tamao all alone in the quad by herself, confused by the immense amount of activity on campus but more so by Anna's long ramblings. She started to look around to ask someone where the front office was located.

"Excuse me? I didn't mean to listen in on your conversation but I overheard that you were going to the office," the little gray haired girl remarked, with a slight accent. "I was just wondering if you would like to walk to the front office with me since I need to check in too. I think I saw a sign back there by the bookstore." Tamao sighed with relief but felt slightly ashamed that this freshman had more guts to approach an upper-classman than Tamao had when asking for directions.

"That would be great. Thanks, I'm Tamao Tamamura, and you are…?"

"I'm Jeanne-Demoiselle de Fer…or just Jeanne if you prefer," she added hastily after seeing Tamao's unsure expression. "A pleasure to meet you."

Tamao and Jeanne had a lengthy conversation, considering that their destination was only a building over. Turns out, Jeanne was a French exchange student visiting the area for a year. She admitted that she was apprehensive at first but she later found out that a few other European students would be attending Funbari High School as well. "I want to find out more about the music program so I can play the violin…I've heard FHHS has a great orchestra." Tamao nodded, slightly envious that she wasn't quite as talented as Jeanne in any department. "But I'm actually really interested in joining the photography club. I was looking through my father's old things in the attic and I came across an old point and shoot and it just developed from there I guess," Jeanne said enthusiastically. The two girls were so deeply engrossed in their conversation that they both started when the front office door banged open and guidance counselor Goldva stepped out and immediately saw Tamao and Jeanne.

"Freshman! Over there!" he yelled, pointing at the long queue that had formed. Jeanne smiled politely and waved good-bye to Tamao before running off to fall in line.

"New girl! Junior?" the short man looked at her inquisitively. Tamao could only incline her head in a weak attempt at a nod. "Good. Schedule," he handed her a spreadsheet that dictated her classes for the rest of the semester and also her locker assignment. "And lock and combination. Oh, and a student to show you around campus and crap. Usui! Get over here!" A boy with spiky blue hair and an armload of books and papers rushed over. "Show new girl here the ropes." And with that being said, the guidance counselor clapped the teenage boy on the back and strode off to scare another group of freshman shitless. The boy sighed and let his burden fall to the floor.

"Uh, hey, so I'm supposed to show you around and…don't let him get to you, he's always like that …such a strange, angry, little man" the blue-haired boy shook his head when he caught Tamao looking a bit flustered as Goldva began harping on a group of bumbling sophomores who, in a moment of poor judgment, thought it would be a good idea to balance their coffee cups on their heads as they made photocopies of their schedules. "Ah, let's see if we got any classes together," he took the schedule from Tamao. "We got…Chemistry…World History…oh, hey, you're stupid in math like me! Er, well, no offense…Algebra II…and AP English. You must be smart to get into that English class; the qualification exam was killer, eh? Miss Jun of the lovely Tao family is an incredible teacher though…But can't say the same for her brother though. So you're…Tamao, right?" Tamao stared at him blankly, her mouth slightly hanging open. She never knew that it was humanly possible to say so many words in only one breath. "Helloooo?"

Horohoro waved his hand in front of Tamao's face. "Oh, _God_." Horohoro's eyes widened in genuine fear. "I broke her. Somebody, help!" To her surprise, Tamao let out a small giggle. She suddenly slapped her hand over her mouth lest another laugh escape and widened her eyes. No one had made her laugh ever since Y- She shook her head to snap herself out of it. "Wait, so your name isn't Tamao? I'm so sorry!" Horohoro apologized profusely and went on a little rant on how inefficient and impersonal the system at their school was until Tamao started laughing again (and widened her eyes again at her unexpected reaction) and told him it was, in fact, okay. Wow, twice in one day…Tamao was impressed. Who is this guy? He sure talks a lot...but oddly, I don't mind.

"Thanks for showing me around, Horohoro-san." Tamao, embarrassed, stared at the ground, making it appear that she had suddenly found a passionate interest in the school's mandatory beige floor tiles.

"No problem, Tamao-san, the pleasure is all mine," Horohoro said with a sweeping bow as he energetically shook her hand. He paused in mid-shake. "...Yuck, '-san' sounds so formal and boring. Bleh, howzabout you call me idiot. Or dumbhead. Or "Hey, you!" The lovely Anna Kyoyama came up with that name just for me the first time we met. Pretty clever, isn't it? That Anna…" Horohoro trailed off, ending with a shiver. "You'll be lucky if you never have to meet her. Or come into a thirty foot radius of her. Ever." Tamao opened her mouth to inform the blabbering teen that she actually _lives_ with Anna but was cut off with a renewed burst of enthusiasm from Hororhoro. "Anyways, where was I?" He paused and cocked his head to one side, giving him a look reminiscent of that of a dog's. Tamao smiled, unaware she was doing so until she caught her reflection in the mirror. "Oh yeah. I was just about to give you another name. Something, short, simple, easy to remember…Just like you! Hmmm…can I call you…Hime? Is that okay?" Tamao blushed in surprise.

"P-Princess?" Horohoro smiled and nodded. "Okay, but I really don't think that it fits me at all, I mean, Princess? I'm not even remotely close to being or resembling one. I'm like the complete of opposite. I'm not even kidding. That implies that I'm-"

Horohoro laughed. "I think it fits you perfectly."

Tamao couldn't help herself. She smiled. Again. "I-I suppose it's fine by me." She tapped her chin thoughtfully and drew her lips together. "But I don't think I could ever call you stupid though."

"But everyone calls me some kind of word that points out my lack of intellect!"

"But everyone calls me Tamao," she said briskly. She clapped her hands together after seeing him with a look of defeat on his face. She giggled as he scratched his head but stopped herself. _What's wrong with me today? I've never felt so, so…bubbly before. This guy sure brings out my weird side…_

"All right! Let's get this show on the road!" Horohoro punched his fist into the air.

* * *

_Free Period_

"Hey, Hime! Hurry up, you're gonna be late for the meeting if you don't run!" called Horohoro. She smiled as she jogged to catch up with the blue haired student. Horohoro had been such a great help to her on her first day of school. Tamao opened her mouth to ask him a question about newspaper before a loud announcement from the PA system cut her off.

"Hey, hey, hey, Funbari! It really is that time of year again. I bet you really missed your friend Joco and his announcements over your vacation!" A loud chorus of groans resounded down the hallways. Horohoro groaned and smothered his face with his hand.

"Um, what's going on?" Tamao asked, confused.

"You really want to know?" Tamao nodded. "Well, my friend Joco does announcements every day. He's hilarious but sometimes he takes it too far, y' know? Last year he had to publicly apologize to librarians, the principal, lawyers, the janitor, Swedish mattress makers, trash cans, the students in building 600, the Toyata company, and Anna."

Joco continued his announcement. "And let's see who our very own Funbari Shamans will be taking on this Friday on the football field. Ugh, it's the Kame Souls…or should I say the Camisoles?" A ripping sound was heard over the crackling announcement system and sheer pandemonium erupted in the office.

"Agh, put your shirt back on!"

"Why are you wearing girl's clothes?!"

"Urgghh, my eyes, MY EYES!"

"Make him stop! I'm begging you!"

"Mr. Goldva, Joco is wearing a camisole!"

Goldva's voice emitted from the speakers. "Students, announcements have been postponed until further notice-W-wait, Joco! Come back here! Don't you run away, you little--!" Click.

The entire student body population stood still, absolutely speechless. "See what I mean? Anyways," Horohoro said, changing the subject. "Wait up. I want you to meet someone." He craned his neck, and after evidently spotting someone, he waved his hands. "Hey, Ren!"

A strikingly handsome, yet extremely short, dark haired boy emerged from the crowd, along with a whole group of giggling girls. The boy, obviously annoyed with his fans, looked relieved after spotting a chance to ditch his admirers. "Don't you girls have something better to do? That's right, get out of-hey, that's my jacket! Don't take--ow, let go of me please! Put me down, yes, nice and slow now, okay…" He grabbed Horohoro and pulled him behind a cluster of lockers before another girl could seize the opportunity to hug her little precious Ren. "Thank you," the fierce looking boy said, sheer gratitude shining in his eyes. "I've been _trying_to avoid those girls all morning. You would think that they had never seen a guy before by the way they act," he growled in frustration. He flicked his eyes upon Tamao's gawky stare. "And who's this?"

Tamao blushed after realizing how stupid she must have looked. "Sorry, that was rude of me. I'm new here. My n-name is Tamao Tamamura," she bowed deeply, the ends of her hair sweeping the floor. Ren looked a little surprised at the sudden formality.

Horohoro put his arm around the shorter boy. "And this is Ren, my best bud. He's also the captain of the lacrosse team and he's very—"

"I didn't know that freshman could be the captain of a sports team," Tamao interjected.

Ren's golden eyes narrowed with anger. The imposing peak of hair atop his head began to shake violently. "You think I'm a _freshman_?!" he erupted violently. "You think I'm that short, do you? Huh?! Yeah, that's right, the short guy is _always_the freshman. That's how it is, now is it? I'll have you know that I'm a junior--Don't look so surprised, girl! What an impudent, foolish, rude, crass—"

"—sensitive about his height," Horohoro finished, cutting Ren off. "Take it easy, Ren. She's new here. Why don't you walk with us?"

Ren cooled down a bit. "I'm sorry about blowing up at you. It's just that I don't like it when people mistake me for a freshman." Ren sharply nodded in response to Tamao's squeaky _It's okay_. "I haven't properly introduced myself. I'm Ren. Tao Ren," he said, extending his hand. Tamao took it in her own.

"Tao? Are you related to Miss Jun by any chance?" Tamao asked, recalling her previous class with the green haired English teacher.

"Actually, she's my older sister," Ren replied looking quite bored. "And yes, I am aware that we look almost nothing alike."

"Oh, I wasn't going to say that. I just wanted to mention that she's an amazing teacher!" Tamao gushed. "And she's so pretty."

Ren looked at her blankly. "Well, she would have to be at least decent looking to be a model, wouldn't she?"

Tamao looked shocked. "She's a _model_?"

"Well, when she was our age she was. Jun just loved it. What girl wouldn't love to work with all the big name designers and wear expensive clothes and make tons of money?" He looked faintly disgusted. "Not that we needed more, that is." Tamao finally realized why her English teacher looked so familiar. She remembered seeing a Chanel billboard in one of the airports with the jade haired Jun sporting a full fledged designer outfit and handbag.

"Why did she stop then?"

"At one of the shows she was in, Jun wanted to donate the proceedings to charity. But her company wouldn't have it. The big CEOs couldn't comprehend why they should give any money to starving kids and needy families when they could rake it in for themselves. So Jun quit and dedicated herself to making difference in people's lives," Ren said, pausing to take a drink from a nearby water fountain. Tamao paused in her walking, attempting to soak in all of this information. T_his is turning out to be a very interesting school._

"Hi there, Ren!" A big muscular man came up and clapped him on the back. "Still joining this year?" The man looked slightly worried about what Ren would say.

"Of course I'm joining the lacrosse team this year! Who else would lead those other incompetent players in the games? Manta Oyamada, I suppose? The team's water boy?" Ren's bark of laughter rang through the hallways (and later proved to be the sole cause of his demise). "Don't be a fool, Bason! I'm taking the team to the finals this year, don't you forget it!"

A look of sheer relief washed over the lacrosse coach's face. "I wouldn't dream of it. I'll see you at practice next week then." Bason left, looking quite cheerful.

Ren shook his head. "Well, that was a complete waste of ti—"

"THERE HE IS!" a female voice shrieked over the murmuring outside the classrooms. "I told you guys I heard him laugh over there!" Suddenly a whole herd of screaming, giggling girls stampeded down the hallways, in hot pursuit of a sprinting Ren.

"We'll see you at lunch, Ren!" Horohoro called out as the azure haired boy ran and let out a distinct _Damnit!_

* * *

_Room 522_

"Great meeting, Horohoro!"

"Yeah, way to go!"

"I think you even made Anna proud!"

Horohoro could barely conceal the joyous look on his face. The meeting indeed went very well, even though Tamao got the skinniest folder in the whole room. But she already predicted, as she opened her manila folder, that she would have to work her way up from the lowest point. And the lowest point just happened to be writing the itinerary of the lost and found. But she would do her best job at writing what items had been misplaced by her fellow schoolmates. _It was a very important job,_ Horohoro let had let her know. "I mean, I was the keeper of the lost and found before. A lot of people found their missing books and shoes and retainers because of me," he said proudly. "I was very descriptive."

Tamao waved and Horohoro came over to join her and Joco.

"You did a really good job, Horohoro. So what's your post on the paper?" Tamao asked.

"Well, this year I'm the news editor. But if I'm lucky and Anna decides to be kind to me for once, I might be the front page editor when we're seniors," he said.

"Aw, come on! My man, Horohoro, here is gonna be student manager and the editor-in-chief next year," Joco said, throwing his arm around the blushing blue haired junior. "Everyone knows, even Anna, that when she's not here, you're the one who gets everyone organized and on time for the deadline," the gag page writer stated. "So don't forget that your old friend Joco has dreamed for three years of being the features editor when Anna names ya student manager."

Horohoro smiled. "Thanks for the ass-kissing, Joco. But if hell somehow freezes over and Anna names me the student manager and the editor-in-chief, I'm going to assign people to their posts according to their skill. Nice try though."

"It was, wasn't it? God, look at Anna," he said, after noticing that she was already at her desk working. "Sometimes I think that she loves this newspaper more than she could love any other human being." Horohoro paled and Joco's face fell into a look of sheer horror as he realized the magnitude of his seemingly harmless observation.

"WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY?" The amiable chatter that had been going on was suddenly cut off. The blond senior suddenly looked like Emily Rose from that Exorcism movie. "How many times have I told you to NOT use that word around me? As I have said time and time before, newspapers are for people who don't mind being treated like hamsters running around on a wheel. They have no sense of identity or creativity. It's like a freaking emotion vacuum, it sucks everything out of you. This school has already taken its first step to becoming an institutionalized holding pen for mindless drones by mandating that everyone must wear uniforms. If you ever call this nurturing environment of free thinkers and writers a newspaper _again_, Mr. McDaniel, I'll have you singing and dancing in the glee club's next performance faster than you can crack another one of those crappy jokes of yours. Now, everybody, GET BACK TO WORK!"

"Yes, Anna!" the entire classroom full of students squeaked.

"I think I'll go cry in the corner, quietly, wondering why a full grown young man of seventeen years lets the shit get scared out of him by a hormonal, blond she-devil," Joco whispered hoarsely while he staggered off to said corner.

Tamao's face was beyond pale. "Is that t-the lunch bell I hear?"

Horohoro was still shaking. "Yeah, I think it is let's go before the lines get long." The two practically ran outside to escape the feeling that a bomb was ticking away, ready to explode, inside the room.

* * *

_Chemistry Lab_

_Oh God, I HATE this class already._ Pirika sighed as the final bell rang, signaling the start of her chemistry class. She was the only sophomore in this class. If that wasn't bad enough, she was stuck in the same room for forty-five minutes with her dorky brother and his weirdly serious friend. Everybody else was just a junior that was stupid enough to not take biology their freshman year. At least she was good at science…well that was the only thing she was good at. Every year she aced science and math. Just last year she managed to effortlessly pull off perfect A's in her biology and trigonometry classes. And PE. PE was easy; Pirika couldn't understand why the majority of her class was left gasping after their three mile conditioning while she felt just fine. Pirika tapped a finger against her lips. _Maybe it's the fact that I've been enrolled in the most rigorous and fast paced dance classes that were government approved for the last twelve years of my life... Nah, that's probably not it._

_Well, at least that pink haired girl over didn't look like one of those drooling imbeciles._ She turned her disinterested gaze over the rest of her classmates as her teacher began to talk. _Why am I stuck with these losers when I could be having an intellectual discussion with smarter people? I mean just look at everyone in here. They're either airheads or losers or jerks or the occasional antisocial emo or…Oh. My. God. Who's that?_ Pirika's hand slammed down on her desk as she scrambled out of her bored slouch and keenly leaned forward as she fixed every milligram of attention on the being that was in front of her.

"Class, as you all know, our school is having a foreign exchange student program this year. One of the students is joining our class. This is Lyserg Diethel and he came all the way from England to join us. He's..."

_Beautiful! He's gorgeous and perfect and wonderful, that's what he is!_Pirika was stunned as she observed her new green haired classmate. Lyserg was smiling warmly and looking on at them with his bright jade eyes and greeted all of them cordially with his "adorable" British accent. Pirika swooned as she noted his "flawless" skin and his "mediumish but not weirdly girly long hair" and his "perfect two rows of pristine white teeth and his toned but not overly muscular frame and—"

"...any volunteers to show our new student around?" Pirika let out a cross between a scream of ferocity and a shriek of delight as her hand shot up into the air. The entire class stared at her and she could feel her face burning up with embarrassment but she didn't care. She _had to_ get that guy to sit next to her. Had. To.

"Hey, I think Pirika wants to show the new kid around. But that's just a guess." Ren said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. Pirika glared and Ren smirked in response.

"Uh, ummm. G-good....good. Then it's settled. Miss Usui will show you around the school." Pirika could barely contain her excitement as the new student sauntered over and sat next to her.

_Oh God, I LOVE this class already._


	2. October

_Room 522_

Growing up, Tamao had defined her weeks by schedules. Take off flights had set times, hotels had the same checkout hours no matter what country, luggage carousels always took exactly seven minutes and forty three seconds to get to from their gate. Her mother's itinerary for the day was always neatly gridded into uniform tables so that they could accomplish each task in the most efficient manner. Essentially, Tamao's life was one huge schedule. So when Horohoro had just simply smiled and said "Whenever" after she had asked the monthly due dates for her column, Tamao had to stand there and for a moment to process what he had said. Her first response was to laugh and regard it as a joke. But after her blue haired colleague had returned to his own routine, she realized that he was totally, completely, absolutely, dead on serious. Tamao walked back to her work station, aka a cheap wooden desk, and sat down, stunned. _Whenever? How acceptable is 'whenever,' exactly? One week from now? Two weeks? Is this Anna's mandate? Does she think that due dates put unnecessary restrictions on our creative processes? What?! Should I turn my piece in on a more random date so that it doesn't look like I planned it all out in my head? Should I get a salad or a taco today?_

"I'd go with the taco salad." _How did he hear me? _"You've been talking to yourself for the past couple of minutes." Tamao turned around, her embarrassment evident on her face, to see Horohoro's hunched over figure and opened her mouth to apologize. "No need to apologize, Hime."

Tamao sighed, picking up her pencil to do the necessary page measurement calculations for the spread on the new theater. "You know me too well." Horohoro spun around on his stool and tapped his pointer finger to his temple twice, grinning.

"Taco Salad Tuesdays are serious business," he said darkly, holding a flashlight under his face for good measure. Tamao blanched."Hey, are you okay, Hime? You look kinda pale," Horohoro inquired, adjusting the fruit hat on top of his head. "What's the matter? Apple?" He offered Tamao a fruit from his interesting choice of headwear.

"Umm, where did you get the flashlight and fruit hat from, Horohoro?" she asked while politely turning down the apple.

"Huh? Oh, I don't really know. Don't you love continuity?" Horohoro remarked, taking a bite out of the rejected fruit and ignoring Tamao's mumblings of "stupid author" and "what ever happened to suspension of disbelief..."

A burst of laughter and Joco's trademark guffaw erupted from the back of the classroom. "Joco must be doing another of his dramatic interpretations of an emoANGRY piece some angsty would-be writer sent in for the literary section of LASNC." Horohoro and Tamao looked at each other. "I saw it this morning. Anna counted the word 'whore' nineteen times and 'cut' twenty-three times." Mutual understanding through silent facial expression communication. "I heard Joco can cry on cue now." And with that, the only two working students rushed over to see if they could catch another one of the aspiring comedian's melodramatic readings.

As we know by now, Tamao has led her life according to concrete structure and guidelines. So she really didn't know what to do with herself when sitting down for her creative writing class, eagerly awaiting her beloved Ms. Tao's instructions, she was met with a "Just freely write down your thoughts for ten minutes to get your writing flowing." Especially after her latest surprise concerning her article deadlines. That after the ten minutes and Ms. Tao's announcement of "time's up," Tamao looked down at her notebook and saw that she had written a whole two words: taco salad. Well, it's a good thing that we're not sharing what we wrote with the rest of the class, Tamao thought to herself, slightly embarrassed. "Okay, so now to get comfortable with your own thoughts and the writing process in general, you'll share what you wrote with the rest of the class." _I suppose I deserved that._ And so Tamao got down to business to making up at the last second something that is supposed to make the writing process easier. Which definitely doesn't defeat the purpose at all.

"Himeeeeee, wait up!" Horohoro whined, breaking out into a light jog to catch up with her. "That was a pretty good class. I kinda like the whole no limts approach that Ms. Tao is taking with the course. I think--are you okay?" He gently took Tamao's arm and lightly pulled to get her to stop her insane shuffling fest she was having with herself.

"ThatwassoembarrassingwasitreallythatbadtellmeifthatwasbadIdon'tknowwhattodowithmyselfIhopethattherestoftheclassdoesn'thinkthatI'mweirdorevenworsestupid," the mortified girl said from behind her hands all in one breath at the floor.

"Um..." Horohoro paused for a moment for once in his life before he said anything. He was completely aware that Tamao needed some sort of comforting right now so he wracked his brain for some kind of words to console her.

"Huuuuunh?" Oh, God.

A very flustered Tamao slowly uncovered her face and brought her hands down. "Well, I guess it wasn't that bad. And they'll all forget about it by next class, right?" Horohoro nodded dumbly, finally concluding that the both of them would be better off if he just kept his mouth closed for the remainder of the conversation. Tamao brightened a bit, held her head a little higher, and her reddened face began to revert back to its natural state. "Thank you for listening, Horohoro."

_Jeez, I got off lucky this time. If that was Pirika..._The blue haired student shook himself out of his disbelief. "Oh, I almost forgot." He rummaged through his pockets with some mumblings of _Oh so that's where the rest of pizza went_ and _Isn't that my biology homework from...last year?_ and _Please let that be Pirika's lipstick, not any physical manifestations of regret and a bad night._ His face finally lit up and he pulled out a perfectly intact flyer from the deep, unknown depths of his jacket. Which was a pretty incredible and nearly impossible feat judging from Horohoro's mumblings of discovery. "Party at Joco's house this Friday?" he excitedly announced. Tamao took the flyer that he extended towards her and scanned it over.

"Sure. Hopefully I don't do anything embarrassing there." She smiled.

"Hey, guys! Do you like my new shirt?" Joco said, shoving himself between the pair and showing off his shirt that said "LOL, FORESHADOWING!11" on it.

* * *

_Harusame Field_

"Okay, aaaaaand stretch."

"You're touching the line."

"Um, no I'm not."

"You're touchinggggggg it."

"No, I'm not."

"Yes, you are."

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

"YES."

"I HATE YOU." Pirika threw down her towel and stomped over to the imaginary boundary, her foot almost slipping on a haphazard small ball that had rolled onto their "half" (_More like quarter_, Pirika snarled in her head) of the field. "I am tired of this! Our practice area is so much smaller than yours and you're still complaining. You are unbelievable!"

Ren sauntered over. "We agreed on the outer boundaries of our respective practice areas already. It's not like you guys are in season yet." He turned around to go back to his team.

"NEITHER ARE YOU GUYS! Hey, don't you turn your back on me. Why do you even care, it's not like your team even makes it to the endlines anyways." A hush fell over both the lacrosse and gymnastics teams. Ren stopped dead in his tracks and became abnormally still that both sides wondered if he was even breathing.

"What did you say." Pirika's temper flared.

"Look at me when I'm talking to you!" Ren's back showed no intentions of turning around. _Whap!_ The impact of the rubber ball to the back of Ren's head rang hollowly over the fake grass that was in contest. Both teams looked like they were going to faint. Pirika blinked blankly as if she herself was just starting to grasp what she had done. But that really didn't stem the angry tide otherwise known as an enraged female. She dug her worn out Pumas into the ground and clenched her fists, preparing herself to defend her team and (more importantly) her dignity.

All frightened onlookers will tell you that they aren't entirely sure of what happened next (considering that they were too concerned with their own well being and of course, getting 911 on speed dial). But what they all _will_ tell you is that faster than anyone had thought humanly possible, Ren had somehow whipped around and closed the distance until there was less than a half a foot between himself and Pirika. All within the span of 2.7 seconds. Yes, someone timed it. That person being Manta Oyamada since he doesn't really have anything else to do aside from getting water, timing the other players and serving as an aerodynamic target for shooting practice. But that isn't the point.

What is the point? Or rather, what _was_ the point since Pirika couldn't really function at the moment, much less remember what the point ever was since Ren's face was so close that she could feel the warmth that was emanating from him. She gritted her teeth as she tried to spit out the words that had welled up inside of her in an angry wave just seconds before. But somehow she couldn't. If it had been any other person, Pirika could have. If they had been standing just a little farther apart, Pirika could have. If only his eyes weren't so goddamn gold, Pirika could have. But the problem was, it _was_ Ren, they _were_ standing mere inches apart, and his eyes _were_ that goddamn gold. And since these were indeed the facts and not just hypothetical _If only_ speculations that the Ainu girl was playing out in her head, Pirika couldn't say anything. And Pirika hated Ren even more because of it.

The Tao family does not accept anything lower than first place. Just ask their two children, Ren and Jun. From their childhoods, they have been training nonstop for the sole purpose that they will be the best. In anything that they do. Which, obviously means to their father, can be achieved through a lot of physical training. Ren has lived, breathed, and devoted himself to physically strenuous work, half of which was probably illegal in the overwhelming majority of the…world and would send human rights activists back at the United Nations into a tizzy. But the Tao children didn't mind since they were reared to think that it was normal and they became accustomed to it. So when it took all of Ren's concentration to complete a task, it meant something. _Really _meant something_. _

Just like how it took all of his concentration to not notice how short Pirika's shorts; Ren probably said something along the lines of "I'll have you know that I have taken my team to the regional finals for the past two years" or "Don't mess with my hair, it takes me hours and a whole lot of gel to get it into this huge ass, totally unnecessary spike thing" but he doesn't really know. Probably because he was still too busy trying not to notice how tight Pirika's choice of clothing was. Or how they expertly showed off her physique—_Oh,_ _God, what am I doing. How can that idiot of an older brother let her go out of the house like that? Wait, does he even know? What the hell am I supposed to do? _He wasn't trained for this at all. Ren resisted the urge to sling Pirika over his back and run off of the field and behind the locker rooms, give her a pair of sweatpants and demand that she keep them on for the rest of the day. No, scratch that. Forever. But that would probably earn him a well deserved slap. But he still didn't like the fact that there would be a gaggle of boys hopped up on hormones waiting for her after practice. And that they would get to see Pirika and those damn shorts of hers. He reddened. _I mean, Horohoro wouldn't want that. No, Horohoro wouldn't be too pleased._ Ren turned on his heel and barked to the rest of his team to get back to practice. So he did what Taos do best and lost himself in his workout.

And it was at this point that Ren declared himself the Protector of his Best Friend's Little Sister and the Enemy of All Lecherous Teenage Boys Everywhere. Ren was confident that Horohoro would be very supportive of the idea, Pirika's dignity would be kept intact, and Ren would feel more comfortable without a huge pack of hungry guys drooling over his best friend's younger, innocent sister. Too bad Pirika didn't have any say in the matter.

* * *

_McDaniel Household_

"And _THIS._" An overdramatic flourish of the hand revealed a cup of a clear, strong smelling liquid to the fascinated crowd. "_THIS _is enough alcohol to knock Mic into next week." Joco pointed to his abnormally large cat that Horohoro swore was actually a jaguar. The spectators gasped and clapped in admiration. "If I don't make it out alive, someone print at the top of the next LASNC publication: 'THIS IS A NEWSPAPER' without Anna seeing." Joco cried tearfully, placing the back of his hand to his forehead. The party goers nodded. "So long!" He pulled a pair of goggles over his eyes and dumped the contents of the cup into the blender while the crowd clasped their hands and held their breath in anticipation.

"There isn't anymore water," Tamao said quietly amidst Joco's cries of _IT'S ALIIIIIIIIVE! _and the enthralled teenagers' applause. She let go of the cooler's plastic lid and it resounded with a hollow thump, melted ice sloshing around inside the container.

"Really? Well, I guess not everyone here drinks beer and cocktails. I'll go to the store and get some, okay?" Horohoro said cheerfully. "Just sit tight for a second. I'll be back soon." Tamao smiled and nodded. She _was _really thirsty after all and she had Anna to talk to anyways.

Half an hour passed and still no sign of her blue haired friend. Tamao was seriously considering going to the kitchen and drinking the tap water there but quickly gave up that notion when she saw a few sickened sophomores run to the kitchen sink and throw up. Anna had left in a hurry soon after and Tamao was stuck by herself. She sighed and propped her head up on the arms of the sofa she was sitting on. Suddenly, a box of bottles was shoved in front of her. "Thirsty?" Tamao blushed and started to shake her head.

"Sorry, I don't dri-" She stopped. _Oh no. No, no. No. That can't be him. No._ A guy around her age retracted the box of drinks back and smiled, tucking his long brown hair behind his ear. _Wait, that's not him. That's-_

"Long time, no see, Tamao," Hao said, smirking. _If Hao's here, then that means his brother is here too._ Tamao entered full-panic mode. "What's wrong? You look pale." Hao's voice oozed with affected sympathy.

_Say anything, maybe he'll stop talking to you and you can escape through the bathroom window! You can use the passed out people in the tub upstairs to like make a rope or something and then climb down-- _Her head was spinning and her thoughts turned into garbled jargon."I-I-I'm thirsty!" Tamao blurted out, her eyes clamped shut and her head bowed down. Hao looked surprised.

"I thought so. That's why I brought these." He swung the bottles up and tapped them. He continued talking before Tamao could say anything. "Don't worry, they don't have any alcohol. They're just juice." The pink haired girl studied his face. If there was one thing Tamao had learned when she was a kid, it was to never under any circumstance trust Hao. She slumped back into the sofa and threw her head back. _What do I do? _She groaned inwardly. She reluctantly opened her eyes and surveyed the rest of the room. Everyone was happily talking to each other. She didn't have anyone else to talk to or anything to do. Horohoro was still out getting water, Anna was God knows where, Joco was too busy mixing drinks, the rest of her friends were outside, too far away from her to help. And Hao was sitting next to her, shoving those stupid bottles in her face. She burned as she recalled the word oftentimes used to describe her at parties: wallflower. She clenched her fists in her lap and whipped her head around.

"Are you _sure_?" She asked with so much conviction that Hao looked slightly taken aback.

"Of course, don't you trust me? Look." He opened one of the bottles and held it under Tamao's nose. _It doesn't smell like there's any alcohol in it…_A look of hurt crossed Hao's face. "You still think I'm lying. Go ahead, just take a sip. I _promise_ you." Tamao's breath hitched in her throat. _Promise_…_Stop it, Tamao! Hao isn't him, so why are you getting so worked up?_ She uncertainly took the bottle from him by the neck and slowly wet her lips. After tasting it, she slammed the bottle on the table. People around Tamao started looking at her.

"It-it's just…juice," she said incredulously. She blinked at him. Hao threw back his head and laughed. "You were telling the truth."

"See, Tamao, I'm not that bad after all, am I?" Hao said, glancing at her. She grabbed the bottle and started drinking from it in an attempt to avoid answering him. "So how have you been all these years? _We_ haven't seen you in so long," Hao accented the _we_ part. Tamao started drinking faster. _Please go away, please go away. Look, I'm drinking, I don't have anything to say to you._

Tamao choked on her drink as she finished the bottle's contents. "S-sorry, I'm thirsty." She looked down, trying to avoid his eyes. The same eyes that he shared with his brother.

Hao stared at her for what seemed like ages as she opened another bottle and spoke only after she had downed half of it. "I can see that." His hair fell forward as he placed one hand on each of his knees, effectively covering his face from Tamao's view. She scooted as much as she could away from him, lest he call her out on what she was trying to do. That, or try to devour her and harvest her organs. _Knowing Hao, it'll probably be the latter option_, Tamao thought as she pushed herself so far back she nearly fell off of the couch. He stood up quickly and his hair fell back, exposing a sunny expression and a smile that Tamao swore she had seen before. "Well, then I'll just leave you with your drinks then. Let's catch up later." And with that being said, he went into the hallway and disappeared.

Tamao sighed and collapsed into the soft the material of her choice of seating. She stole furtive glances around the room and, convinced that she didn't see the shade of hair she was looking for, breathed a little easier. She glanced at the clock and frowned a little. It was still a long time before she and Horohoro were going to leave. _Speaking of which…Where is he?_ She shrugged and placed her second bottle next to her first and reached for a new one and resigned herself to people watching for the next half an hour.

_When did it get so bright in here? _Tamao sat up, and immediately fell back. "Ugh, my head…" She rested on the ample cushioning in hopes of clearing the sudden light headedness that had come over her. She got up slowly and slumped over. She placed her sixth bottle next to the others and clumsily tried to get another. "Huunh?" Much to her dismay there wasn't anything left. She stood up sloppily and then it dawned on her—_Oh, God, I don't look busy anymore. What if he tries to come back and talk to me?_ Tamao paled as she whipped her head around in an attempt to find something to do.

Several things happened at once. Horohoro came through the front door and spluttered out something about traffic but triumphantly held up two packs of drinking water. Joco entered the living room, calling out that he was done mixing for the night. Hao reappeared. And Anna finally came back, her hand firmly wrapped around another person's wrist and, spotting Tamao, headed over in her direction. Tamao was overwhelmed by the sudden amount of activity that centered around her.

"Hey, Hime! Sorry about that—"

"Oh, Tamamura, you look like you enjoyed yourself tonight—"

"Finished all the drinks I got for you? Don't worry—"

"Guess who's here to see you—"

And a final voice rang out, clearer than the other hazy, blurry ones.

"Tamao."

And with that one word being said, Tamao turned around and took two wobbly steps into the wall and subsequently collapsed.

"What happened to her?"

"Oh that poor girl, she looks like a mess."

"Man, she's been drinking by herself the whole evening."

"What?!" Horohoro stomped over to Joco and pointed an accusing finger at him. "What the _hell_ did you give her tonight?" Joco took a defensive step back.

"Excuse me? I didn't give her anything! She didn't come into the kitchen at all tonight! I swear." Joco took another step backwards and bumped into the coffee table that Tamao had spent the majority of the party sitting in front of. Her empty bottles clink-clanked together. "What the—" Joco picked up one of the bottles. "Wine coolers? Who got these out of the fridge?"

"Guilty as charged." Hao put up his hands in mock defeat. "I didn't know those were wine coolers—" His smirk reappeared on his face.

"Like _hell_ you didn't!" Horohoro jumped at him, ready to set Hao's long, precious hair on fire. Or rather, he tried to and probably would have if it wasn't for Joco holding him back. Anna walked over to Tamao who somehow had managed to stand up and fling herself over the nearest chair, and flipped her over.

"Oh. She's drunk." Anna waved a hand in front of Tamao's face. "Tamao? Are you okay?" She was met with a garbled _Uhhhhhhhhhhuuuuuuhh_ from her younger cousin.

"Hey, Anna?"

Anna had been rubbing Tamao's back. "Yes?"

"You smell like rainbows!" Tamao started laughing so hard that tears rolled down her cheeks. Anna frowned disapprovingly at the pink haired girl and whapped her upside the head.

"And you smell like a drunken mess. Now what kind of first impression is that going to leave on someone you haven't seen in, oh let's see now, almost twelve years?" Anna said over the shouts of Horohoro, Joco, and Hao. Tamao turned to look at them.

"But Hao's the one who gave me the bottles. They're made of glass." Tamao swayed back and forth for a few seconds, pointing at Hao. Anna looked blankly at Tamao, pushed her pointing hand down, and attempted to pull the younger girl up. The two staggered for a second and found their balance. "Anna, look! I can walk!" Tamao erupted into a fit of giggles.

"I'm not talking about Hao." Tamao was half-aware that Anna had motioned for someone to come over but she didn't really notice because apparently she just discovered how freakin' long Hao's hair was and was currently staring at it. But then someone had walked up and blocked Tamao's view. She tilted her head up. And stared. With her mouth open.

When Anna realized that Tamao wasn't going to speak, she elbowed her cousin in the ribs. "Tamao, say something."

Tamao's jaw was hanging open. Anna growled and grabbed her arm. "Say something," Anna said quietly.

"Swan Lake!" And Tamao started bawling her head off and collapsed. Anna stared at her.

"She's usually not like this…" Anna began apologizing. "Sorry, Yoh."

He smiled uncertainly and looked around at the huge crowd that had formed. "I hope she'll be alright."

* * *

"_What'cha doin'?" The six year old boy bounced over and squatted in front of the seated girl. She looked up at him shyly._

"_Writing." She quickly looked back down, blushing. But the boy was persistent._

"_Writing what?" He quickly turned around and sat next to her. Normally, she would've covered her notebook up in embarrassment but since it was Yoh, it was different. He looked down at the page covered in her careful, shaky letters._

"_A story!" Her face lit up. "It's really easy tah write now 'cause of the music. It's really pretty." She looked admiringly at the store's outdated speakers that were playing crackly, static ridden classical music. _

"_It is pretty, isn't it?" Yoh wiped his nose on the back of his hand. They both sat there, Tamao writing and Yoh staring at the clouds drifting around outside. "How long're our moms gonna shop in here? It's so boriiiiing," he whined, drawing out the last syllable. Tamao smiled at him and opened her mouth to say that they're probably leaving soon 'cause how long can their mommies do something this boring anyways? but right then, the music stopped and a commercial started playing. Tamao's face fell and her entire tiny body drooped like a wilting flower that hasn't been watered enough. Yoh looked at her in concern. "Tamao?" He shook her. He frowned and tapped his chin thoughtfully._

"_I was almost done writing," she said softly. "I can't remember what was going to happen next." She looked so crestfallen that Yoh was scared she was going to start crying. He jumped to his feet and puffed his chest out. He looked down at Tamao._

"_Don't worry! I'm gonna learn how tah play it on the piano and then, and then, I'll play it for you and then you can finish writing your story!" he announced triumphantly. Tamao brightened and clapped her hands together. He hopped over and pulled Tamao onto her feet. He looked her dead in the eye. "I _promise._" Tamao reddened, unused to be in such close proximity to the boy she has loved since she could remember. "Um," he looked hesitantly at Tamao. "Do ya know what the name of the song is?" Tamao's spirits fell again. An unhappy little blond girl walked up to the both of them, her arms crossed in front of her._

"_Come on you guys, we're going now," she said coldly._

"_Anna!" She turned around, looking cross. "Do ya know what the name of the song that was just playing is called?" Yoh asked excitedly._

"_Swan Lake." She turned back around, this time yanking both Yoh and Tamao behind her. "Let's go, auntie's getting mad already."_

_The three kids ambled behind the two women as they exited the store. Tamao was busy listening to Yoh's plans for the summer. "And then we'll both go and catch frogs in the creek and then go fishin' and then we'll go to this awesome field I found by our house and—" Yoh rambled on eagerly. He paused and looked at Anna. Their eyes met and they quickly looked away from each other. Both of them suddenly became silent and Yoh's wildly gesticulating hands dropped to his sides._

"_G-guys? What's wrong?" Tamao asked. Silence. "Anna?"_

"_Nothing." She refused to look at the pink haired girl. A feeling of uneasiness welled up inside Tamao as she clenched her notebook tighter to her chest._

"_Why are you guys so quiet?" she asked desperately. Yoh stared at the ground and Anna wouldn't meet her eyes. Yoh mumbled something. Her eyes threatened to spill over as she tried her best not to cry._

_Later that night, her mom called Tamao into her room and sat her down to tell her that the two of them would be leaving Funbari Hill. "Did Yoh and Anna know we're leavin'?" Her mom looked surprised that that was the first question Tamao asked. She said that they did in fact know. The hurt stung Tamao as she finally understood why the two other kids had been so quiet before. Her voice caught in her throat as she realized that Yoh couldn't keep his promise if Tamao was moving. The sadness within her doubled as she came to the realization that he actually made a promise he full well knew he could keep or worse, had no intention of keeping. "Where are we moving?" Her mother told the questioning child that they wouldn't be moving; they'd be traveling. The little girl was confused. "Then where's our home gonna be?" she asked meekly. Her mom paused and said that their home would be wherever their hearts were. Tamao sniffed quietly as her mom went to go pack and looked at the house next to theirs—Yoh's house. _

"_Home is wherever our hearts are."_

_

* * *

_

"Tamao."

_I know, mom, you already told me that we're leaving._

"_Tamao._"

_Don't worry, I already packed all my clothes._

"Tamao!"

"Gah!" Her eyes flew open. "How did I get back into my room?" she said slowly, as if testing out each word for the first time. She turned to get out of bed and immediately jumped up. "Horohoro!" She blushed. She never had a guy in her room before. Her eyes flicked down at the floor. _Wait…these aren't the clothes I had on last—_Her eyes widened and her blush increased tenfold.

Horohoro looked away uncomfortably. _Oh, no. God. Don't tell me—_"We snuck you into your room last night." He shifted his gaze down at his feet. "Anna changed your clothes." Tamao inwardly breathed the hugest sigh of relief.

"Oh." She swung forward. She had a gigantic headache. "My head…" she said quietly, sitting back down. Horohoro scrambled out of the chair he had been sitting on.

"Uh, h-here. You probably have a huge hangover from all of those drinks that _bastard,_" he growled, "gave you last night." He passed Tamao a foul smelling concoction. She stared at it.

"I grew up with him," she whispered. Horohoro's face burned as she downed the drink.

"O-oh. Sorry."

She neatly wiped her mouth. "Don't be, he's always been like that." Horohoro leaned forward. "I never really liked him all that much." An invisible tension seemed to lift from Horohoro.

"Oh, good. _Good._ You don't like him. Er, well, I mean, it's never good if you're around people that you don't like. And uh, well, see, er, what?" Tamao laughed. They both looked at each other.

"Thanks, Horohoro." He scratched the side of his head and looked away with what Tamao at first thought was embarrassment but later she dismissed it. _Why on earth would he be embarrassed?_ "So, you know Hao?"

"Who doesn't? Everyone knows the Asakura twins," the blue haired boy said. "Don't like Hao at all but Yoh is one of my closest friends." Tamao's heart jumped when she heard his name.

"Really?"

"Yeah, we've been going to school together for years! Been best friends for almost ten years now." Tamao timidly squawked. _Ten years? They must have met soon after I left. I could have known Horohoro. I could have grown up with him._ Tamao shook her head in disbelief. "What's the matter?"

"Oh, nothing." She smiled. "I'll buy you breakfast for everything you did for me last night and today!"

* * *

_Five Hours Later_

_Best friends for ten years? They must be really close…Maybe if I keep hanging out with Horohoro then maybe I can see Yoh more. And then maybe finally he'll notice me. I've missed him so much and unbelievably I'm still in love with him…And I'm sure Horohoro wouldn't mind me hanging around him more anyways. Yeah, I'll just use hanging out with him as an excuse to see Yoh more!_

Tamao

She shut her notebook closed, tilted her head back, and smiled at the ceiling.

* * *

**A/N**: This is ShatteredLyre, formerly IThinkItsCalledLove. Changed my penname after a two year hiatus. Unwritten has been bouncing around in my mind for two years. Do put this (or me -hint-) on your alerts list or something since I'll be cranking out these chapters over the summer! I would love to hear what you think so far!


	3. November

Ever since, Pirika has adored anything European. She draped herself in European labels, drenched her skin with European fragrances, disdained all chocolates that weren't European and was determined one day to own a European car. Which also explains why she was so keen on marking the poor, unsuspecting European transfer student as her own. To everyone's surprise (and Ren's apparent dismay), Lyserg didn't seem bothered by it at all. _No, not the least bit at all_, Ren would think as he happened to see Lyserg dutifully waiting for Pirika to come out of the locker rooms everyday after conditioning for the past month. _This is exactly why I need to keep stalking her—er, I mean, observing her. Because observing her would make Horohoro happy and make me not angry. _And, as everyone knows, a non-angry Ren doesn't feel like kicking puppies or murdering kittens in cold blood on his way home.

It wasn't as if Ren liked her. He felt absolutely no affinity, much more _attraction_ (he made a disgusted face here), towards the girl. "She's rude." _Thwack._ "Annoying." _Thwack. _"Superficial." _Thwack._ "Hot-headed." _Thwack._ "And arrogant."_ Thwack._ "So then, _why _am I doing this?" Ren angrily shouted. Bason and the rest of the team had to restrain Ren and yank away his lacrosse stick before he could continue hurtling any more balls at poor Manta Oyamada as he had been doing for the past minute or so.

In the locker rooms, Ren knew that something had to change. He continuously thought of the matter during school which caused him to crash into more than a few hapless students in the hallways, messed up during practice because he couldn't figure out why he was acting like this, and glared at her back during chemistry class so much that he neglected to take down notes. He punched the open metal locker, causing one of his teammates to shriek out and another to run away and hide in the bathroom—for the third time this week. _Okay, Ren. Calm down. Breathe. Now try to sort this out. _

He felt strangely overprotective towards her. Yet he didn't feel like he cared for her or had any romantic feelings. _Not that I know what caring for someone feels like, _the Chinese boy thought, rolling his eyes. True enough, the Taos, while being trained to increase their physical capabilities were simultaneously trained to decrease any emotional attachment that they had felt. Something that "would only hinder them," as their father had said. So Ren decided to meditate on it, the only thing remotely personal that the Tao children were allowed to do without fear of punishment. After a few minutes, Ren came to the conclusion that he regarded Pirika in the same way he did Jun; of course he would feel protective of his own sister and Ren supposed that he felt some sort of sibling-like connection with Pirika as well. And with that, he filed the matter away into the deep recesses of his mind, intending to never think of it again. Which was next to impossible.

"Hey, Pointy-Head." Ren inwardly groaned and turned around to face the blue-haired girl and her exceedingly British companion.

* * *

_Patch Theater_

"You're serious." Ren widened his eyes.

Pirika frowned. "He can't be." Lyserg simply smiled.

"Of course I'm serious!" The drama teacher shrieked at the three students. "Why else do you think I called you in here?!"

"Oh, I don't know, maybe because you have a thing for the British she-male over here," Ren lazily drawled, ignoring indignant squawks from both Ryu and Pirika.

"I requested for you three to meet with me," Ryu adjusted his outrageously purple tie. "Because I thought that you would be willing to help out your teacher and the entire school. But I understand if you do not care about FHHS's _prestigious _productions that the entire student bodies look forward to every year. It's okay, really. I mean, it's not like I would give you an automatic A in my class for taking part in the play," Lyserg leaned forward a little. "Or that your tentative scholarship to college depends on the grade you get on my class, which is your only C by the way," Pirika narrowed her eyes. "Or that you'll be suspended from participating in this year's lacrosse season because you're failing Drama 1," Ren started listening a little more. "Oh wait. It _is _like that. My mistake." Ryu smiled.

"Absolutely not." Ren crossed his arms.

"Yeah, I don't know if my schedule can handle it..." Pirika swung her legs back and forth as she sat on the edge of the stage.

"I'm not sure if I'm going to even be here for the actual play." Lyserg shifted his bookbag.

"Your cold heartedness pierces my soul! I can't believe that you don't care about your school this much," Ryu wailed into the sleeve of his pristine white suit. "It's just...that..." he sobbed, "I wonder how the rest of the school is going to take it when they hear that three of their most popular classmates had been murdered after Anna Kyoyama hears who accidentally locked the doors to the computer lab the day before LASNC was to be printed." Ryu's eyes gleamed.

The three students gaped. "Y-You wouldn't." Pirika's legs stopped moving. Lyserg dropped his book bag. Ren's complexion slightly paled. "She'd _murder _us. No, she'd torture us slowly and then kill us. I've heard horror stories from what she used to do to the volleyball team before she got suspended for using 'cruel and unusual punishment' on her teammates. I heard what she did would make convicted murderers shake in their boots," Pirika whispered.

"Believe me, I would. Ever since the Boz brothers have graduated, the number of kids auditioning has slowly dwindled. Oh, those were the days when people actually cared about theater, when they respected the art of drama and acting. What I would give to get at least a fraction of that enthusiasm again." Ryu looked like he was going to cry again.

Ren, after composing himself, closed his eyes. "Stop being such a drama queen."

Lyserg, in an attempt to calm down his teacher's outraged splutters, hurriedly interjected. "So, uh, why don't you give us your spiel, Mr. Umemiya?" Pirika clapped her hands together in support.

Ryu colored and waved his hand at the boy. "Oh please, just call me Ryu. No need for formalities."

"Yeah, because he obviously wants to be more familiar with you. In more ways than one, that is..."

"YOU SHUT UP, REN." Pirika kicked Ryu in the shin in an effort to speed the process along. "_Ow! _What's your problem?!"

"Ryu, of all the kids at this school, why did you pick us three anyways? You obviously already know that we're not even remotely close to being decent at acting." Pirika tilted her head back and stared upwards at the old, musty theater ceiling.

"Well, since you three are undoubtedly the most popular in the school, after the rest of the student body hears that you guys are in the play, then auditions will skyrocket and my productions will be restored to their former glory!" Ryu threw his hands up in a dramatic flourish. "That way _everybody _wins!"

Lyserg scratched the back of his head. "Eheh, I think 'most popular' is a bit of an exaggeration..." he began modestly.

"Oh, my Lyserg, you are, to the rest of the school, the mysterious, British exchange student who everyone wants to be friends with." He turned to Pirika. "You're the perfect student, essentially. You've gone out with the most sought after guys, you're the captain of the gymnastics and cheerleading teams, you're in advanced classes, and you are attractive." He faced Ren. "You're..." He studied the shorter boy for a minute. "Ahem. Anyways..." Ren angrily smacked Ryu in the head with Lyserg's dropped bookbag, ignoring his drama teacher's wails of _Not the haaaaaaaaaaaair!_

After attempting to salvage his overly large pompadour, Ryu gave up and sighed in resignation. "Will you guys do it?"

Ren opened his mouth to deliver a firm and emphatic expression of rejection (read:"_Hell _no" and a swift kick to the solar plexus) but before he could, Lyserg spoke up. "I don't see why not," the green haired boy said cheerfully.

"W-Well if Lyserg's doing it, then so will I!" Pirika said a bit too fast for Ren's liking. Apparently being the Protector of his Best Friend's Little Sister and the Enemy of All Lecherous Teenage Boys Everywhere, Ren was forced—against his own will! (_Can't forget the against my own will part, that's the most important bit,_ he justified in his head)—to begrudgingly consent to be a part of the play.

Ryu's face lit up so much that it hurt the three students' faces. "Gooooooood!" he chirped. "Here are your parts. Oh and, by the way, it's a musical." He grinned evilly, savoring the looks of sheer terror on the kids' faces. "See you at rehearsals then!"

* * *

_Room 522_

"You're serious." Tamao's eyes widened.

Joco frowned. "He can't be." Horohoro simply smiled.

"Of course I'm serious!"

"That's not fair!" Joco shrieked at the blue haired editor. "It took me three years to get a promotion! Why does _she _get one?"

Horohoro sighed. "Relax, Joco. It's just a small promotion anyways." Joco stomped his foot and crossed his arms. "Well, Hime, do you want to see what you'll be doing?"

Tamao nodded and the two walked away, leaving Joco to fume by himself. "Ah, don't mind him. He just works really hard and he usually gets the short end of the stick whenever Anna's around. Ever since freshman year." He stared sympathetically at Joco. "Jeez, that guy deserves a medal of honor. Or martyr status at least."

Tamao laughed. "Yes, Anna is a bit demanding."

"And you! You freakin' live with her! How do you survive? That's like, automatic sainthood for you after you die!" Horohoro teased. "Here we are." He reached for a manila folder and handed it to Tamao.

"So this is what you'll be doing instead of having to go through the nasty lost and found." Tamao opened the folder and read the contents. "Simply, we'll compile a list of events, like dances, rallies, fundraisers, games, etc., for every month and you arrange it chronologically and just type up a brief description of each event. I think the guy before you even made a calendar template so you can use that if you want."

"Thank you, Horohoro," Tamao's face broke out into a smile. "But, you could've picked any of the underclassmen here to do it. Why me? They're probably more familiar with school functions…"

Horohoro held up a hand to silence her. "Because you deserve it," he began. "Anna just said, 'Go forth, young grasshopper, and retrieve for me whoever you think deserves this Most Glorious Promotion and bestow unto them the Manila Folder of Responsibilities.' And yes, you have to say those two things like they're capitalized. That's what she told me anyways. Okay, maybe she didn't say that _exactly_ but close enough."

He turned around and looked at the clock. "We can probably go now to the library. And start work on that _wonderful_ history project. Eh, let's go."

* * *

_Oyamada Library_

"As in Manta Oyamada?" Tamao stared at the sign above the library's entrance.

"As in Manta Oyamada's dad. The big CEO of something or other. You should see him, they look almost exactly the same. It's creepy." Horohoro shuddered as they walked inside.

Tamao selected a table for them to work at and set her things on top of it. _I wonder what my dad looked like. Would people also say that we look the same?_ Her shoulders slumped a little.

"Man, what're we supposed to even do for this project? I was sleeping when it was assigned. What a big waste of time…" His voice trailed off, ending in a grumble.

While Tamao explained the assignment to her lazy friend, she noticed something drop out of his bag when he reached in to get some paper. "Uh, what's that?" She pointed at what appeared to be a white cloth sack.

Horohoro's face colored to a nice shade of firetruck red. "T-That's nothing!" He grabbed the "sack" and attempted to cover it up.

Tamao stared at him, mildly surprised. "Is it—is it illegal?" she whispered.

"What? No, no. No. Wait. What?!" He apparently gets very flustered when embarrassed. "This is—it's just…You see…Ugh, fine. But if you tell anyone, I will never forgive you," he said darkly. Tamao nodded enthusiastically.

He slowly uncovered whatever he was hiding in his hands and held it up (after doing a thorough sweep of the room to see if anyone was looking). "This is—"

"A teddy bear?" Tamao bit her lip.

"Yes, a teddy bear. Her name is Kororo. I've had her since…I was little. She's my good luck charm." He looked fondly at the old, slightly dirty stuffed animal. "She kinda started falling apart last year."

Tamao's body was shaking as she tried her hardest not to start laughing. "I can see that," she said as she surveyed the damage. One bead eye was left, both ears were hanging on for their dear lives by a thread, and the nose was so faded it looked like a splotch of dirt. "Have you ever considered fixing it?"

"I obviously can't do it myself. Remember the saran wrap incident? Pirika flat out refuses every time I asked her and I can't get anyone else to do it without telling them about Kororo." He hung his head. "It's too embarrassing. So I guess she'll just stay like this until she totally falls apart one day." He frowned.

"I can do it."

"So sad. I can't imagine my life without Kororo. She's been with me ever since—Wait, really?"

"I do most of the sewing at home anyways," Tamao said brightly. "Auntie's busy with work and Anna doesn't really want to be bothered by having to mend clothes. But she's a really good seamstress…"

Horohoro's eyes teared up and he reached out and embraced her over the table. "Oh thank you, thank you, thank you! You have no idea how much this means to me!"

"E-Eh, Horohoro, you're--!" Tamao was blushing like crazy. "You're crushing Kororo!"

Once the Ainu boy calmed down and both were back in their seats, Tamao took out her phone. "Ponchi's a tanuki and Conchi is a fox."

Horohoro studied the cellphone picture. "Whoa, Hime, did you make those yourself?" She nodded. "This is…wow. Those look really good! How long did those take you?"

"Two days? Including getting the patterns and the fabric, that is."

He took out his wallet. "How much?"

"W-What?"

"How much do you want?"

Tamao furrowed her brow. "Really? I'm doing this as a favor to a friend."

"No, seriously, how much money?"

"Really, I don't need any money. I'm happy to do it."

He slowly put his wallet away and considered Tamao's expression. "Okaaaaaaaaaaay." He leaned forward. "But why? Why are you doing this for me?"

"Because you deserve it." She smiled. "Come on, I'm thinking that we can finish this assignment in forty minutes then we can go to my house afterwards and I'll fix Kororo there."

* * *

_Kyoyama Household_

"Hi, Auntie! This is Horohoro." Said boy waved. "He's my friend at school and Anna works with him for LASNC."

"Oh, yes, I remember you. You were here a few weeks ago, I think." Horohoro and Tamao both froze.

"What is _he _doing here?" Anna stepped into the living room. The blue haired boy's eyes bulged and Tamao instinctively stiffened her body.

"Uh, hey, Anna. Historyprojectcan'ttalkrightnowseeyoulateroratschoolwhicheveronecomesfirst." And with that, the two suspicious students ran away.

Both Anna and her adoptive mother stared after them. After a pause: "I like him!" Anna simply closed her eyes and walked out in a huff. Or as huffy as Anna could get.

"Horohoro, could you look through those and find a similar bead to the one Kororo has?" She handed him a box filled with buttons. "Let's see…Square foot of fabric, minimal stitching, I wonder how much stuffing is left. I think there might be some under…" She rifled through some things in the closet. "Ah, here it is. Where was I—"

"So that's Ponchi and Conchi?" He indicated using his elbow. "Pirika could learn a thing or two from you." He noticed a pool of color in Tamao's otherwise light pink room. "What's that?"

Tamao went flying through the air and covered the whole thing entirely with her body.

"It's n—"

"Hey, fair is fair, right?"

Tamao whimpered and looked up at him wretchedly. She slowly uncovered it.

"Hime…if you say you made those too…I will have to slap myself."

"Um, I made them…?" She looked uncertainly at him.

"These are the most amazing kimonos I have ever seen. And I've seen a lot, thanks to Pirika." He held up the pink one.

"That's the one I use when I go to festivals."

"Festivals? Like the one they had by the temple last week?" She nodded. "Hey, you know now you have to take me to one of them." She smiled.

"What about this one?" He held up a white dress. "For your wedding?" He teased her.

Tamao's face fell as she grew silent. Horohoro's expression softened. "I was just kidding…"

"It's for Anna's wedding."

Silence.

A pause.

"_WHAT_?!" He spluttered. "You mean, someone is actually willing to marry—Anna is engaged—_when did this happen_?"

Tamao's lips drew together in surprise. "Y-You didn't know? I thought you were best friends with Yoh."

"_YOH?_ No, no way are they—they can't." Horohoro melted into a hyperventilating mess.

"I'm sorry, I thought you knew!" She tapped her chin. "Actually, I think that Ren and Joco and most of the upperclassmen at LASNC know too…"

"Jeez, Yoh Asakura, I thought we were friends." Horohoro exiled himself to a corner of the room and wallowed in his sadness. "But really when did this happen?" he asked her wall.

"Oh, it was a long time ago. I was still living in Funbari Hill. Ever since I could remember the two of them were engaged. In an arranged marriage." Horohoro turned around and his jaw dropped. "To keep the Asakura bloodline strong and such…"

"Poor, poor Yoh," he started rocking back and forth. "I can't even begin to imagine having to spend the rest of my life with _her_."

"B-But they do love each other. Even though Anna doesn't look like she does, she really loves him. And they've been together ever since and neither of them has had any complaints about the arrangement."

Horohoro came back from the Corner of Self-Imposed Depression. "That's true. I actually always thought they were going out anyways."

"Yes…she will be a good wife to him. She's worked really hard." Her voice became nothing more than a whisper. "But I've worked really hard too." She stared sadly at the floor.

"Huh?" Tamao's head snapped up.

"O-Oh, nothing. Let's get this bear fixed, shall we?"

* * *

**A/N: **A shorter chapter. Sorry! But to make up I'll post a new chapter faster! I'd love to hear your feedback! Happy days =)


	4. December

_Kyoyama Household_

"So?" Yoh stared at the arc of pamphlets that were spread out on the floor, willing them to all spontaneously combust in his mind so that he wouldn't have to deal with it. "Pick one already."

He turned around to face the blond who was sitting cross legged behind him. "Jeez, Anna, don't you think choosing which college I want to go to in the span of five seconds is a little unreasonable?" He was met with an icy gaze.

"No. It isn't. Now _pick_." She pronounced each word sharply and motioned for him to turn back to the task at hand. "The ones on the left are the schools that are trying to recruit you and the ones on the right are the universities that we all know you'll get into for sure because of kendo." _Man, she's making it sound so simple…_

He carefully reached out towards one brochure but kept his eyes trained on Anna's face to gauge her reaction. "This…one…question…mark…?" he asked cautiously, drawing each word out to buy more time for himself. He clutched the University of Tokyo's brochure in front of his chest as a pathetic excuse for a makeshift shield. "Maybe?" He ducked his head behind the packet of glossy pages. _Don't kill me, don't kill me, don't kill me_, he repeated over and over again as his mantra and squeezed his eyes shut.

Anna stared at him for what seemed like an eternity. _I bet _she _could make the brochures spontaneously combust by staring at them_. She gently took the pamphlet from Yoh's hand and he sighed in relief, thinking that he chose the right one…then she proceeded to roll it up and whack him across the forehead with it. "What do you think you're doing?" she demanded.

"I-I thought that was the school you wanted…" he trailed off pathetically. _What does she want from me? _he inwardly wailed. Anna dropped the brochure-turned-weapon and sighed, placing her hands on the floor in front of her. He stole a glance at her and straightened up, waiting for what she was going to say next. _Did I say something wrong? I bet I did…I _always_ say something wrong._

If Yoh knew any better, he would say that she was looking at the floor sadly. _Then again, it's Anna, she can't _feel _sadness. _"But that's not the one you wanted…" Yoh's thoughts came screeching to a halt. _Huh…? _"Now pick up the one you actually like," she murmured. Yoh sat there, frozen by what he had just heard, gaping. _WHAT?! _She snapped back to her usual self. "Hurry up before I change my mind."

Ever since freshman year, all he's ever heard from Anna was the University of Tokyo this, the University of Tokyo that, when are you going to build me a five story house with a pool and two tennis courts in Tokyo so I can just walk to college, Yoh? And he'd gone with it all these years, not really caring either way where he ended up. There was an unspoken agreement between the two in which both Anna and Yoh would go to the same university, not open for negotiation, sir and/or madam.

He quickly grabbed the brochure of the college that he had been mulling over for the past year. When the school came to his attention he marked it as some place that would be nice to go to but in the end he had already resigned himself to attending the University of Tokyo with a wistful sigh. He looked down at the pamphlet like it was a baby he had just pulled out of a burning building at the last second. "Y-You really mean it?"

She glared at him in response. "But we'll be in different countries, Anna." True enough, she would stay in Japan while he would travel all the way to the United States.

She rolled her eyes. "No, of course we're not going to be in different countries. If you're going there then I'm going there—"

"Wow, Anna…th-thanks." Yoh was dumbfounded by her sudden graciousness.

"Because otherwise how else am I supposed to trust you going to school with thousands of girls?" she continued without missing a beat. _Oh, so that's why she's doing this…_ He shook his head mournfully. _I knew it._

"I always thought that going to university in Tokyo was your dream." Yoh leaned back and stretched out his legs that had started to fall asleep.

Anna sniffed. "It doesn't really matter as long as I get the necessary education to run my own business." She was, of course, referring to opening an _onsen_ one day. _Well, that figures. Quite reasonable actually._ Yoh nodded and their conversation steeped into silence. He was enjoying the peace and quiet until suddenly he sat up in realization.

"Uh, A-Anna? How did you even know that I was applying there?"

"I asked Goldva for your file and looked at the colleges to which you applied…and so I sent in my own application." She looked at him incredulously as if _he_ was the one who had done something so unbelievable. "Do you have a problem with that?" she asked slowly in a _say-yes-and-I-will-rip-out-your-intestines-and-knit-a-sweater-from-them_ kind of way.

Yoh simply groaned and slumped down in a heap. _Oh, Anna._

_

* * *

_

_Patch Theater_

"_Ren!_ What are you doing up there?! Stop hitting Lyserg in the face every time you go offstage!" Ryu angrily shouted from his seat. The Tao boy gritted his teeth as he resisted all temptation to hurl the British exchange student at Ryu. He was nearly at the end of his rope. He could take dancing around the stage like a fool for two and a half hours after school each day (well, actually, it was less dancing and more like _I'll try to convert each move into some kind of exercise so technically I'll be working out and not actually dancing and therefore retain some shred of my masculinity_ type of deal); he could take singing (albeit his "singing" was more like incomprehensible growling and halfhearted mouthing of the lyrics) show tunes that he never again wanted to hear in his entire life; hell, he could even take Ryu's incessant shrieking which sounded very similar to a dying, wet, angry cat. But what Ren couldn't take was—

"Hurry up, Pirika, or I'll leave you stranded at school without a ride home," Lyserg teased the younger girl.

_That_. That being British boy and Ainu girl going off together and having some weird, twisted adventures together. Okay, maybe it was a bit of an exaggeration on Ren's part. It was more like them unknowingly acting out the exact script of any typical shojo story. _You can even see the sparkly, glittery flowers that inadvertently pop up every two panels_, he thought, gagging.

He kept grumbling to himself as he sat outside and watched Ryu lock up the theater. The drama teacher looked sympathetically at the fuming boy. "You know, what you're doing isn't going to get her to be your lady love anytime soon." Ren glared daggers at the man. "You should take a more direct approach!"

He rolled his eyes. "One: I do not wish for that…_girl_…to become my 'lady love,' Ryu. Two: Just like your direct approach is working with Lyserg, right?" He returned to his slumped over position.

Ryu _hmph_-ed and placed his hands on his hips. "If you don't want her like that, then why do you look like you could kill an elephant with your bare hands every time you see them together?" Ren snorted at Ryu's interesting choice of description. "And you just watch, one day Lyserg will be _mine! _MINE I TELL YOU! But," he continued, sitting next to Ren, "I think that there is more to Lyserg than meets the eye." Ren quirked an eyebrow.

"And how would you know?"

"I wouldn't be so enamored with him otherwise. I like 'em _feisty_!," he exclaimed with a wolfish grin.

"_Waaaaay _too much information, Ryu." He spotted Jun waving from across the quad. "Um, I'm…going to…go…now…Have fun with your perverted reveries."

* * *

_Kyoyama Household_

"Tamao, can you answer that?" Anna called from inside the kitchen. Her cousin nodded and jumped up from the floor.

"Oh, hello, sempai! You're a bit early." She took the colorfully wrapped present Horohoro thrust in her face. "Anna's in the kitchen getting things ready."

"Whoa, am I the first one here? This is the first and last time that's ever going to happen. Need any help?"

Tamao shook her head and examined the box. "You really didn't have to get anything for me…"

"Eh, it's your first year here, might as well, right?" He bounced up and down excitedly like a little kid on too much sugar. "Open it!"

She laughed uncomfortably as she undid the ribbon. _Well, at least I can go with Anna later to buy a present for…_Her thoughts trailed off as the magnitude of the gift hit her upside the face. She gaped. "You didn't."

"Well, I, uh—ah—" Tamao put it down on the floor, leapt forward, and embraced the flustered boy with so much enthusiasm that it surprised even herself. "So I'm guessing you like it?"

She pulled back from the hug a bit awkward and embarrassed. "Yes…yes! Of course. How did you know? It's beautiful," she breathed, looking at the old typewriter fondly.

"Well, to be honest, when we all went out shopping after school a couple of weeks ago, after the LASNC meeting, right? I saw you staring at it in the window. So I figured…" He shrugged.

Her eyes widened and her hand flew to her mouth. "Oh, no. I hope that you didn't spend too much on it. Oh dear—"

"Don't worry about it, Hime. And I don't think that the shopkeeper really knew how valuable the thing was anyways. Er, not to say that it was dirt cheap. But it wasn't out of my budget, I swear! Not that I had a budget when shopping for you. Of course I don't have a budget when I'm—you know what I'm saying?" he rambled incoherently before coming to a stop.

"Yes, yes. I'm afraid that I haven't bought your gift yet though," she said as they both walked inside the house.

"Hime, you don't have to get anything for—" Horohoro cut himself off after seeing Tamao's trademark _Oh-you-hypocrite_ smile. The two looked at each other before bursting out laughing. The doorbell rang. "I'll get it." He went over to greet the next visitor as Tamao went to her room to set up her new typewriter.

_Now I feel so guilty. I wonder what I could get him…He does seem very interested in snowboarding. And Pirika keeps complaining that they always go to the mountains for vacation._ She ran her hands lovingly over the vintage keys of the typewriter. "Don't worry, I'll take good care of you!"

"Oh. It's you." He leaned against the doorframe. "How anticlimactic."

"What the_ hell _is that supposed to mean?!" Joco huffed indignantly. "Who did you want it to be?"

"Someone prettier than you," Horohoro closed his eyes and tilted his head up in mock disgust. "Like Jeanne or even Goldva." Joco swiftly stomped on his foot. "Okay, okay, relax. Come on in."

"Nothing like the LASNC Christmas party, eh? Though I never get why we do it in the beginning of December." Joco shrugged off his jacket. "The only time of year I ever willingly submit myself to a whole night of Anna Kyoyama." The two boys laughed.

"You called?' Anna walked into the room, looking even scarier than usual in oven mitts and holding a tray of cookies. "If you set fire to the living room again this year, Joco…" The senior's eyes narrowed menacingly before she returned to the kitchen.

"'S not my fault I didn't know Windex was flammable…" he grumbled. His eyes suddenly lit up and he leaned forward. "Oh so, how'd it go with…y'know?" He whispered, winking and nudging Horohoro in the ribs with his elbow.

The Ainu boy quickly flipped him around and captured him in a headlock. "Shut up, man." He laughed. "And she liked it, just for your information." He released Joco.

"Good thing you took my advice, right?" He smiled triumphantly. "I have my ways with the ladies."

"Hey, jerkoff, _I'm _the one who came up with the idea. Stop trying to steal my thunder!"

"Well, you'll be thanking me by the end of this night…" He laughed evilly and rubbed his hands together. Horohoro winced. _This can't be good._ "You'll see."

The rest of the LASNC workers showed up shortly and the party got into full swing. Tamao was enjoying herself immensely. _Though I wonder where Jeanne went off to,_ she thought, recalling the younger girl's hurried expression and promises that she'll join the others once she took care of something. She dismissed it as Joco began calling for everyone's attention.

"Hear ye, hear ye!" Not quite satisfied with the current volume of his intended audience, he raised his voice. "EVERYONE SHUT UP!" The room grew silent. "See, that wasn't so hard, was it? Anyways, as it is customary, Anna is going to go on with some formalities…and announcements and…stuff. Yeah." He jumped down from the sofa.

"Hello, everyone." She paused as she was met with a well trained chorus of _Hello, Anna_. "Let's get down to business. Our two newest members, Tamao and Jeanne, have done a great job this semester. Unlike some of our other staff." She turned and looked pointedly at Joco who merely grinned back. "Tamao, expect a promotion by the end of this year…that is, if you don't screw up. And Jeanne is our first ever photographer for LASNC which really makes it look very professional, doesn't it?" A resounding _Yes, Anna_ filled the room. "Also, w—wait, what's that smell?" Smoke began curling up from behind the couch. "_Joco!_ What did I tell you?"

"It wasn't me!" he shrieked and dove under the table.

Someone went to inspect the source of the potential fire. "It's a cigarette butt!" He called, holding up the offending object.

Anna turned around slowly. "Kanna…" The blue haired girl shrugged.

"So _that's_ where I dropped it," she sneered as she lazily took back her cigarette. The two engaged in a glaring contest while the party started up again.

"Jeez, Kanna and Anna really do hate each other, don't they?" Horohoro shuddered as he sidled up to Tamao. "I wouldn't want to get locked into a room with them—whoa, watch it!" Horohoro called as he stumbled forward, thanks to a very hard push from Joco. "Sorry about that…"

"It's fine," Tamao said slowly as she watched Jeanne give an encouraging smile to Joco. "That's funny, why are they looking at each other like that?"

"Because Kanna almost burnt your house down with her cigarette. And we all know how much Anna hates smoking. Lung cancer and whatnot…I never really pegged her as a health freak." Horohoro turned around to see what Tamao was staring at.

"No, I mean, J—"

"Ah, Tamao," Jeanne called softly. She was pointing upward, above both Horohoro and Tamao.

The Ainu boy's face paled until it rivaled the shade of the newly fallen snow out. The girl's eyes bugged out so much that a few spectators feared that they would fall out of their sockets. Because what was hanging above the both of them, quite conveniently if one might add, was mistletoe.

"You have got to be—"

"Kidding me."

Both of them hoped to furtively shuffle away in opposite directions until—

"DO IT!" Horohoro could've punched Joco in the face. Or well, he would've if he wasn't already paralyzed by the situation at hand. It was too late. Everyone who hadn't been paying attention now turned to face a very flustered Tamao and a very motionless Horohoro. They both could feel every gaze drilling into the back of their heads. Tamao's eye twitched.

Snippets of the evening came rushing back to her as they stood staring at each other, unsure of what to do. Jeanne rushing into the house, something very uncharacteristic of the freshman, clutching what appeared to be a small paper bag. Joco taking a chair out of the kitchen and when Anna asked him what the hell does he think he's doing, he responded with a quick _Nothing, Anna!_ and ran out of the room with said chair in tow. Jeanne asking if there were any metal clasps or thumbtacks around. Joco pushing Horohoro towards Tamao. The exchange of a smile and a thumbs up between Jeanne and Joco. _Oh, dear God._

"Oh, dear God." Murphy's law states that _anything that _can _go wrong, _will _go wrong._ Tamao had found this particular statement to be interesting but nothing more. Horohoro dismissed it as being, quote, unquote, "a bunch of bullcrap." But the two, turning to see the source of the voice, started to rethink their stance on Murphy's law when they were faced with Anna. Standing next to them. With a hand on each of their shoulders. _And poised to force them, using any means necessary to,_ Tamao and Horohoro gulped simultaneously here, _kiss._

But then, as with most parties, it seemed to Tamao, several things happened at the same time. Anna actually began to push her cousin and Horohoro _apart_ from each other. Sirens began blaring in front of their house. And the front door flew open to reveal two firemen.

"Is everything alright in here?" Tamao and Horohoro couldn't believe their good luck. "Sorry to barge in like this. Your smoke detector went off and it's mandatory to check in whenever it isn't turned off." Anna left to go handle the concerned firemen while the rest of the LASNC workers went to follow their editor-in-chief dutifully like a pack of lost puppies. Or guard dogs. Anna preferred the guard dog image.

"Joco!" Horohoro stomped over to the guilty boy.

"Jeanne…" Tamao tearfully implored.

"What the _hell_ was that about?!" he demanded

"Why would you do this to me?" she wailed.

"Oh come on. You should be thanking me for that push. You've been drooling over her ever since she came to our school!" Joco held up a hand to silence Horohoro's outraged squawk of protest. He lowered his voice. "And I just thought that you could use it, y'know. For the ten years I've known you, you _never_ were interested in any girl… ever since D—"

"_Who. Told. You. That._" Joco's face flushed as he realized that he wasn't supposed to say _that_. "NO ONE knows about that. Not even Yoh. How did you find out?" _Horohoro can be really scary_, Joco concluded as he observed his friend. Joco had never seen Horohoro like this in all the years they had been friends. "It was Pirika, wasn't it?" The Ainu boy shook his head. "If you ever tell anyone..." Joco conjured up a mental image of his head on a chopping block and an insane, angry Horohoro in possession of a dull butcher's knife. Joco nodded his head vigorously.

"Oh, Tamao, I'm so sorry. I didn't know that it would upset you that much." Jeanne attempted to console her friend who looked like she was either about to melt into a puddle or burst into tears. Or both for that matter. "It's just that—Joco came up to me last week and told me about Horohoro. He guessed that he liked you. And from the way that I've seen you two talk to each other, I thought you felt the same way about him. I'm sorry, I didn't know what I was thinking."

Tamao sniffed. "It's okay," she managed to squeak out. "I'm fine. But you could at least warn me next time." Jeanne giggled and nodded. She sighed. "It seems that every time I'm at a party, I always end up embarrassing myself." Jeanne patted the poor girl on the head. "Well, at least that's over with. I hope it doesn't get awkward between us."

* * *

_Funbari High School – Main Hallway_

"Ah, sempai, does this look riiiii-aaaaaah!" Tamao dropped the streamer she was trying to attach as she lost balance. She wheedled back and forth before stabilizing herself.

"Careful there! That's a bit unstable." Horohoro jogged over and held the wobbling ladder.

"You're telling me," Tamao muttered. She picked up the streamer again. "Why are we doing this again?"

Horohoro coughed and batted away the cloud of glitter that had erupted when he tried to pull out one of the cardboard boxes from the supply closet. "Because we volunteered to decorate the hallways for the Christmas dance?"

Goldva's voice called out. "It's the Winter Nondenominational Multicultural Holiday Festival! Come on, Usui, get with it!"

Horohoro sighed. "Yes, Goldva." He turned back to Tamao. "Can't risk offending or turning people off with the word 'Christmas.'" _That seems reasonable enough,_ Tamao and Horohoro thought. "Or the word 'dance,' apparently." _That seems…wait. What?_ "Hey, Goldva, why can't we call it a dance?"

There came an incoherent mumbling and grumbling of "implications of one activity," "unnecessary restrictions," "different cultures," and "jeez."

Horohoro paused. "Well." He cocked his head. "That was informational." He bent down to open the next box. "How are you doing there, Hime?"

And with that, the two returned to their work. Horohoro kept commenting on the holiday season in Funbari Hill, telling stories about when Ren went iceskating for the first and last time with them, and confiding in her how much he was scared of Pirika's cooking. Tamao continued decorating in peace, enjoying the lack of stress that came after finals and Horohoro's cheerful ramblings. She was actually surprised at how much they had accomplished when she picked up the last streamer. She stared resentfully at the problem spot on the ceiling that had almost sent her crashing down to her doom last time she attempted to attach the streamer.

_Almost. There! Reach, Tamao!_ She stretched forward, attempting to get the final piece of tape safely secured to the ceiling. "Come on, you almost got it," she muttered to herself. _Just a little—_ Wood splintering. Her own voice screaming. Horohoro's voice calling out. And then…nothing.

"Ah! Guten Tag!" A face that Tamao had only seen in her nightmares flooded her vision. She yelped and pulled the blanket up until it reached her nose. _Wait…blanket?_ She looked around and saw behind the depressing looking man a pretty little nurse who looked extremely sullen.

"W-Where am I?"

Horohoro popped up out of nowhere. "Oh hey, Hime! You took a nasty spill when you fell off the ladder," he explained, jutting a thumb in the direction of her forehead which had been bandaged up. She stared, slightly scared at the looming man that had been hunched over her before. "Ah, don't worry. It's a good thing we were right next to the nurse's office when you fell. That there is Dr. Faust." Said man waved cheerfully. "And Eliza." The nurse's somber expression broke momentarily to smile warmly.

When she sat up to get a better look, Dr. Faust rushed over, English and German intermixing as he warned her that she would feel light headed. "It is good that your shoulder broke your fall instead of your head." Tamao winced as she just became aware of the acute pain that shot through her upper body. The doctor motioned for Eliza to retrieve a bottle and she quickly hurried to Tamao's side.

As she downed a pill, she studied Faust's face which looked like he had covered in eye shadow. Either that or he had some major eye bag issues. _Faust…Faust…that name sounds awfully familiar_. "You are Tamao, yes?" She nodded. "You are a friend of Mr. Yoh?"

"You know Yoh?" she asked a little too eagerly. Horohoro's brow furrowed the tiniest bit when observing Tamao's outburst.

"Why, yes! I met him when he was just a child." Eliza tilted her head in agreement. "We have known each other for a very long time." _It seems that everyone has known Yoh for such a long time…I wish I could've grown up with him_. She sighed wistfully, completely oblivious to Horohoro's curious gaze. "Mr. Usui, you can take Ms. Tamao home, yes?"

He jumped off the chair he had been perched on. "Yup, of course, Faust. Come on, Hime." He rushed over to the bed and eased her up. "Careful now."

They walked in silence off campus towards the parking lot. Only when they reached Horohoro's car did the boy start laughing as he revved up the engine.

Tamao furrowed her brow. "What's so funny?"

"Oh, nothing." She pouted. "Fine, fine. It's just that you seem to enjoy fainting in my presence." He glanced over at her with a wolfish grin.

Her face burned up and the atmosphere became a bit awkward as they both recalled the last two parties. "What can I say, you make me weak in the knees," Tamao mumbled without thinking. _Ah, what am I saying? Now he'll think I'm weird or something. I shouldn't have said that. The mistletoe incident was only last week! And just when I thought things weren't getting awkward between us._ To her relief, he laughed instead, both just as surprised at the other at Horohoro's reaction.

"You really are full of surprises, Hime."


	5. February

Winter break ended as quickly as it had begun. And yet Tamao, in all of her years of traveling, had never seen anything as beautiful as her friends and life in Funbari Hill. Pirika had insisted on taking Tamao ice-skating in the new rink in the shopping center and Lyserg had laughed as she tentatively took her first steps on the glossy surface. But it made Tamao wonder as she sat down, breathless, flushed, and content, with Horohoro if Pirika and Lyserg were going out. Had a thing. In a relationship. Were involved with one another. All that jazz and a side of fries. But what really piqued her interest were the glares that Ren was shooting at Pirika and Lyserg. Glares so icy that they put the skating rink to shame and gave Anna's own glowers a run for their money. But Tamao was having too much fun to dwell on the depressing hypothetical and instead spent several days with Horohoro and Joco hiding in the sound room of the theater to watch Ren dance and sing his heart out during rehearsals.

Soon enough, with plentiful tears and hugs on Pirika's end and embarrassed stuttering of promises to get Tamao a souvenir on Horohoro's, the two Usui siblings embarked on their journey to Hokkaido. And with that, they left, Pirika fondly looking at the necklace Lyserg had gotten for her and Horohoro securely fastening the scarf and mittens Tamao had knitted for him ("You made _those_? For _me_?" And a quick punch in the ribs for Joco after he had whispered something to Horohoro).

Tamao spent the remainder of her days divided between YohandAnna, AnnaandYoh who, to Tamao's dismay, were as inseparable as before, no doubt a result of the ten years they had spent together without her. YohandAnna (AnnaandYoh, less commonly used) were a two for one package deal, peas in a pod, Siamese twins (though against the boy's will of course. Can't forget that). It was almost impossible for anyone to think of them as anything other than one, continuous entity. But she was thankful for what she could get as she shyly spent more and more time with the object of her affections. And she couldn't ask for anything more.

Lazing around the Kyoyama household with Anna watching her favorite enka singers on TV, Yoh listening to his music, and Tamao busily tap-tapping away on her typewriter (and then notebook when Anna got annoyed with the typewriter's noise) proved to be more idyllic than backpacking around the world. Going shopping every other day with Jeanne (and chaperoned by Marco, of course) was better than strolling around the fashion metros of the world. The rest of the time was spent with Joco and the LASNC crew and they went out to almost every restaurant (her favorite was Peyote's, a Mexican diner that featured a Mariachi band) in the proximity and watched every movie that came out (though she probably could've done without watching _Boris: Revenge of the Bloodthirsty Vampires_).

She noticed seeing less and less of Jun one day and decided to ask Ren who just shrugged and muttered something about a "bloody action movie star" and went off to do some reconnaissance work behind some bushes on his best friend's sister and the green haired suspect. "Anything for Horohoro, of course," Ren would say a bit too defensively when questioned about it.

Mikihisa finally came home from his training and allowed (read: "forced") Tamao to sample his newest grilled meals before releasing them to the general public (one of the less fun parts of her winter vacation in Tamao's opinion since she somehow always got the undercooked bits of his barbeque). Along with Yoh's father and his grilling skills came Kino and Yohmei to discuss the upcoming wedding. And to add salt to the wound, they asked Tamao to run errands in preparation for the marriage and she one way or another always managed to bump into Hao (probably some of the darkest days of the entire school year for her). But the arrival of Redseb and Seyram kept her happy and sane.

Then one day, everything just came to a halt. People came back from their vacations, students began packing their school bags in preparation for the new semester, and the ice began to thaw just a bit. And she was back in a wooden desk at 7:45 in the morning (an ungodly hour for those who were just coming back from winter break) under the unflattering, glaring fluorescent lights.

* * *

_Funbari Hill High School_

"Is it always this hard to come back to school after vacation?" Horohoro nodded.

"The worst is the first day of school. After summer break," he said, wincing. "Sometimes, I wonder why I even bother…" He hung his head in exhaustion.

"You bother so that you can get into a university," she teased while attempting to attach the tribal keychain Horohoro brought back for her from the north. She furrowed her brow in concentration while admiring the Ainu tribe's intricate carvings in the wood.

"Well at least the casting party's coming up, right?" He grinned devilishly. "I just can't wrap my head around Ren being in the musical. And having a lead role, no less!"

"Sempai, we're not in the play though. How are we going to get in?"

"Cast members are allowed to bring guests. _Naturally,_ Ren picked me." Horohoro beamed.

"Isn't it because you threatened to tell the rest of his family members that he was in a musical if you didn't get invited?"

He waved his hand indifferently. "That's a minor detail. Oh and Pirika wanted me to invite you as hers. Since she doesn't have any friends…"

"Sempai!"

"Fine, fine." He checked the time. "Urgh, LASNC meeting in five minutes! Come on!" He grabbed her wrist as they wove in and out of the crowd of meandering students. "Anna will have our head on a platter if we don't make it on time."

They arrived out of breath with two seconds to spare. Anna put her stopwatch away. "You're cutting it close, guys." She turned to address the rest of the staff. "Okay, people, get to work. Just because it's the first day back from break doesn't mean we're going to ease up anytime soon. We've got tighter deadlines since it's the February issue." A round of groans erupted in the room. "QUIET!" The groans were choked off. "Yes, I know the February issue is a pain in the ass since we've only got two weeks to get it out for Valentine's Day. So you know what that means…WORK!" And she turned around to go sit at the shiny new computer Jun was able to purchase with LASNC's money.

Joco popped up behind Horohoro and Tamao. "Imagine, man. That computer and that bad ass swivel-y computer chair will be _yours_ next year. _Imagine!_" he said with a tone of _that-is-so-freakin'-epic_ in his voice. "I'm so jealous right now. It comes with the latest versions of Photoshop and FrontPage, lightening fast internet connections, and the sickest game of virtual pinball I've ever seen. And there's _more_."

"How exactly do you know that?" Horohoro and Tamao leaned forward to hear Joco's new piece of gossip.

"Easy. I used it when she wasn't around." They both gaped at him. "Who do you think got the drool on the keyboard?"

"That was _you_?"

"Yeah, I got a little excited when I saw the screen resolution on that baby," he admitted sheepishly. "And the chair is really comfy!" He raced off to his workplace before Anna could see him lazing around.

"_Tamao!_" the blond barked across the room. "Come here." The editor-in-chief shuffled through a stuffed filing cabinet while Tamao walked over to her desk. She thrust a manila folder at her cousin before she even stopped walking. "Here. Promotion. Go ask Usui about it." And with that she proceeded to yell at Manta for spilling his coffee on the newly carpeted floor.

"_Another_ promotion, Hime? Dang, you're on fire." He took the file. "Holy—! Advice columnist? You got a whole half page to yourself! Lucky you!" Tamao reeled back a little. _Why is Anna giving this to me?_ "I don't think anyone's gotten this high up in such a short amount of time." Tamao tried ignoring the death stares Joco was giving her from across the room. "So it's pretty self-explanatory really. You'll get the username and password for the email address that people write to for advice, pick the ones that you think are the most interesting, and then write up a response to each one."

"Why do you think Anna assigned me as…advice columnist?"

"Huh? Why not? You're pretty good at helping other people," he said brightly. "Here you go. Username and password. Oh and a bit of a warning…some of the stuff people email are very…blunt."

She laughed after logging in. "Oh come on. How bad can they—"

_I think I have a necromancy fetish._

She choked on her laughter. "Oh my." Partly because of the sheer shamelessness of the message and partly because she _personally _knew who had sent that in. Three guesses to who it is and the first two don't count. None other than the lab coat donning, German speaking, eye shadow wearing/insomnia-ridden doctor. She shuddered, closed the email and opened another one.

_Is there any way to curb pyromania?_

Tamao was stunned by how easily it was to discern who had written the email without even looking at the sender's address. This one was definitely Hao.

_I might be a masochist. Help?_

She couldn't exit out of the window fast enough before her eyes saw who had sent it. _Jeanne_. Tamao's eyes burned and she decided to take a breather before continuing on.

_I'm becoming obsessive with how my lacrosse team is going to do this season. I keep having recurring dreams that the team captain is going to quit. I am becoming neurotic. I HAVE TO DO BETTER THAN THE KENDO TEAM. NO WAY AM I GOING TO LET THAT AMIDAMARU RUB IN MY FACE THAT HIS TEAM GOT A BETTER RECORD THAN MINE. MY DREAMS WILL NOT BE CRUSHED._

She winced as she called it in her head: Bason. The abuse of the caps lock hurt her eyes so she clicked the next button.

_I'm kinda bummed that every single one of my frat brothers formed a fanclub. For Meene. Who is my girlfriend. _My _girlfriend. Is there any way to make myself feel better without killing all of them?_

Tamao blinked at the screen. _Frat brothers…?_ _Doesn't that mean this guy is in college?_ She checked the sender's address. John Denbat. _What the—_ "He doesn't even _go_ here!" She shook her head.

"Oh come _on_, you guys. We _have_ to have a better concept than the same old, same old student couples feature for the Valentine's issue," Anna snapped. "We always have a blurb on one freshman couple, one sophomore, one junior, one senior couple. Would it kill you to give some new perspective?"

"Yeah how about shut the f—"

"I will slit your throat, Kanna." Not even bothering to turn around, Anna pressed on without missing a beat. "Usui."

"How about instead of featuring a couple from every grade level…we do one from different demographics?" Anna raised an eyebrow. "Like we can get…Jun and Bailong for the faculty's point of view. And…and…you and Yoh for like the 'golden couple,' y'know, the one that everyone knows will be together forever. And—" Horohoro bit his lip, at a loss of words.

"Or like Lyserg and Pirika for the drama department," Tamao blurted out.

"Yeah! Wait—what?" Tamao mouthed, _Just go with it_. "And—and we can do like a personal ad for Ryu!" Anna nodded. Horohoro turned around and with an _Awright!_ he high-fived Tamao.

"Surprisingly good." She clapped her hands. "GET TO WORK!"

Horohoro stood grinning there like a village idiot while Tamao patted him on the back encouragingly. "Really? Lyserg and Pirika?"

* * *

_Patch Theater_

"Hime! Pirika! We're over here!" Horohoro waved while Ren kept glancing around the room. "Dude, what are you doing, you look all secret agent-y with the way you keep sweeping the room."

Ren sniffed. "You can never be too careful." He returned his golden stare to the wave of students, faculty and guests that swarmed the room, on the constant look out for a head of green hair. "You can never be too careful," he repeated, muttering to himself.

"Whatever, man. Jeez, guys, you took forever coming here."

"Ah, sorry. Pirika wanted to retouch her make up before coming here."

"How many times tonight, Pirika? Twenty-seven?"

"_Shut up_, big brother. And for your information I only redid my make up _nineteen_ times!" She stuck her tongue out and kicked him in the shin. "How do I look? Tell me I look pretty." She twirled around, the skirts of her blue dress flaring up and down like a luminescent jellyfish and batted her mascara-ed/eye liner-ed/eye-shadowed blue eyes at him. Ren choked and momentarily stopped his search.

_This is not fair! There has to be some kind of law that prevents her from looking…so…distracting. She will compromise the mission. _He growled. _Goddamnit, why did she have to wear that dress? It's too short. And why is she allowed to wear such tall heels. Though it does add to her height so her figure looks more—STOP IT, REN! Concentrate. And the dark liner really makes her eyes look dramatic and the eye shadow makes them look bluer—YOU'RE DOING IT AGAIN. Pull yourself together, man. This must be some sort of tactic that British boy is using to _divert_ you. To _foil _your plans. Or even worse, her getting all dressed up will make her an even easier target._

"Pirika, are you okay?" Tamao looked in concern at her friend. "You look a little pale. Do you need to sit down?" Pirika suddenly grabbed Tamao's arm and clutched onto it. Tamao looked worriedly at Horohoro.

Her older brother spoke up. "Pirika, what's wrong?"

"Who." Squeeze. "Is." Squeeze. "_That_." Squeeze.

"Pirika, calm down! You're choking the life out of Tamao's arm!" The Ainu girl, without turning her gaze from whatever was upsetting her, released Tamao's forearm from her death grip. Ren followed her line of vision. _So _that's _where Brit boy is._ _And who is that with him?_

Both Pirika and Ren watched as Lyserg walked through the doors and offered his arm to a demure looking girl. A pretty little thing with soft silvery hair and garnet colored eyes. "Hn. I don't think I've ever seen her before," Ren said casually as Pirika seethed viciously.

Tamao cleared her throat. "Um, she's Jeanne…she's a freshman and works for LASNC." Horohoro nodded. _And she's my friend_, Tamao thought but knew better than to tell that to the already enraged Pirika. "Oh and Jeanne's part of the foreign exchange student program. She's from France…" Her voice trailed off as she saw that it wasn't doing the least bit to stem the tide of the younger girl's ever increasing anger.

"Grrr, what's with her eyes, they make her look like a she-devil," Pirika said furiously. "A freshman! A _freshman!_" she spat out through her teeth. Tamao's brows knitted together as she was torn between her two friends.

"Oh, stop it, Ainu girl," Ren snapped. "It's not her fault. Hell, she probably doesn't even know you exist. If anything, I would blame Lyserg for leading you on." _Come on, take the bait, take it, take it._

Pirika looked somewhat akin to a cat that just got soaked by a gallon of water. Her eye twitched. Tamao nervously wrung her hands. Horohoro stood expressionless. And Ren smirked at her. Her entire frame heaved. "You're right." She straightened up and tried to smile (which came out more like a grimace). "Let's go."

Ryu took the stage as the guests sat at their tables. "Good evening ladies!" Trademark bright-as-the-freakin'-sun smile. "And gentlemen." Smile disappears. "So as you know, our cast and tech crew of the _esteemed_ and _prestigious_ Funbari Hill's drama department have been working nonstop for the past few months, even giving up the majority of their winter vacation." Ren grumbled. "But finally, the hard work is over and the play is set to premiere next month! And…" For the remainder of Ryu's seven minute, thirteen second speech, a complex web of staring was created. Pirika was staring at Jeanne. Ren was staring at Pirika. Lyserg was staring at Jeanne. Tamao was staring at both Jeanne and Pirika. Horohoro was staring at Tamao. Marco was staring at Lyserg. And Ryu was staring at a certain green-haired Tao.

Ren could already tell. He could tell that Pirika was going to blow. Erupt. Reach her boiling point. Pull a Rambo on somebody's ass. Break all hell loose. _Et al. _He could see this, plain as day, when she was glaring at the poor, unsuspecting freshman. When she stood up after Ryu's speech was over. When she marched over to the table next to theirs, which oddly looked like it was filled with university students. When she took a deep breath, jutted an angry pointer finger in his face. And it was all too late by then.

"Lyserg!" He turned and Ren and Pirika could see that the green haired boy's expression was very different from his usual cheerful, polite demeanor. Pirika's voice broke as she was caught off guard by his irritated expression. Granted, the two hadn't really seen much of each other over break; he was always strangely unavailable or too busy to see her ever since she had come back.

"What?" The college kids looked at Pirika who was feeling very self-conscious at the moment and snickered. "I'm kind of _busy_ at the moment."

Pirika spluttered. "E-_Excuse_ me? Who _are_ these people anyways?!"

Lyserg's eyes narrowed. "These are my _friends_."

The woman who was the only kind face at the table at the moment piped up. "Ah, these guys are part of a fraternity at the university, the X-Laws," she said calmly. "I'm just here with John."

Pirika looked uncertainly at her, her anger-addled mind unsuccessfully trying to find the relevance in the woman's statement. She eventually shook her head in resignation and turned back to Lyserg. "Why are you doing this?"

"Because I found out that you…affiliate with that Asakura boy. I cannot tolerate anyone that even associates with him," he stated dismissively.

"_What?_"

"You're still here? Didn't you hear what I just said?"

A strong hand clamped down on Pirika's shoulder as tears threatened to fall from her eyes. "That is quite _enough_, Lyserg." Ren stepped forward to stand next to her, keeping his hand steady on her shoulder. "Come on, Pirika." She stood transfixed in her position.

"Fine by me. If she chooses to remain friends with him, then she is _nothing_ to me." Then Ren did something very unexpected.

He bitch slapped Lyserg.

She gaped. Partly because that was the last thing she thought Ren would do. Partly because he just hit the boy she had been obsessing over for the past five months. But mostly because Ren _bitch slapped_ someone. Like a girl would do. Except it was _Ren_. As in Ren, Tao warrior, I have no feelings, you are only good enough to lick my shoes, I am superior and the epitome of sheer masculinity. And he _bitch slapped _Lyserg. What the hell.

"What the _hell_, Ren?!" Pirika shrieked as Lyserg reeled from the blow. He shrugged, slung her over his shoulder like a prize he had won, and walked away.

"_Holy crap!_ _I am so happy I brought my video camera_," Horohoro gushed as he packed up his notebook.

"John! So _that's_ the guy who sent me that creepy email!" Tamao got the _Aha!_ look in her eyes and hit her open palm with her fist and picked up her notebook.

"Where did that Tao woman go?" Ryu was searching the entire room. "Come to me! Nobody can resist this solid slab of pure sexy _man_!"

* * *

_Kyoyama_ _Household_

"Oh, God. What a night. I'm going to be writing for hours in my notebook," Tamao groaned as she flopped onto her bed. She pulled out said notebook. And held her breath so long that she knocked herself out. She regained consciousness and checked if what she had seen was indeed true. It was. Scribbled messily at the top corner was _Horohoro Usui_. Not Tamao Tamamura. Horohoro. Oh _crap._

_

* * *

_**A/N_: _**Anybody catch the _Mean Girls_ reference? Anyone? No? I feel old....Anyways, reviews are always encouraged and appreciated! Thank you!


	6. March

**A/N:** a thousand apologies! I haven't updated in forever! I was at UCSD for about a month with no access to a computer. And senior year is turning out to be a real bitch in terms of work. Oh and this chapter contains **SPOILERS** if you haven't read the more recent chapters of Shaman King. And a big thank you to Chokopoppo who is made out of all kinds of awesome and whose reviews make my life complete.

* * *

_Bluebell Cafeteria_

"How long has it been?" A plate was set down on top of the generic brown plastic tray.

"Um…a m-month now…" Tamao looked at the congealed mess that was cheerfully broadcast as "meatloaf" earlier that morning over the announcements.

"A _month_?" Pirika frowned as she waved at the lunch lady and motioned towards a salad.

"Yes." The lunch lady glared at both of them as they held up the line. "What do I do?" Tamao looked dangerously close collapsing in on herself.

"Ugh, my _idiot_ of a _brother_!" The blue haired girl declared as she slammed down her lunch money. "He's so frustrating sometimes."

"I don't even know what I did..." she sighed as the two sat down at a relatively quieter table than they usually frequented. Pirika nodded solemnly with all the wisdom of a sixteen year old as she placed a napkin on her lap and folded her hands.

"Okay, can you run me through the whole thing again?"

Tamao stared at her plate. "Well, I didn't really notice it at first since we were really busy but I think that it started sometime after your cast party."

Pirika scrunched her nose up as she poked at her salad. "Did anything out of the ordinary happen at the cast party?"

She shook her head. "Not that I can think of."

The younger girl tentatively brought a leaf of lettuce up to her mouth. "When exactly did you start noticing that he was legitimately ignoring you?" She immediately spit the salad out into a napkin, hacking and coughing violently.

Tamao furrowed her brow as she passed Pirika a cup of water. "I suppose it would be after we returned each other's notebooks…"

She gasped for air. "Thank you." She handed the glass back to Tamao. "What's this about notebooks?"

"We both have the same type of notebook and we both brought it to the party. I guess we must have brought home the wrong ones. But when he gave it back to me…" Her voice trailed off.

"Did you write anything that could've like, offended him or something?" Pirika rested her head on her arm.

Tamao's eye twitched. "Oh dear…I didn't know it would've hurt him." She covered her face with her hands. Pirika kept quiet as Tamao told her about the journal entry she had mindlessly written a few months back.

"That's _it_?" She nodded. "My brother…is such…a drama queen. Really now. He's just overreacting." Pirika ran a hand through her hair. "An explanation would help a lot, wouldn't it?" She cleared her throat as Tamao nodded vehemently.

"So when we were younger, like way younger, we lived in Hokkaido, right? I know that this is really, really hard to believe but…there was a girl that liked Horohoro. And he liked her back." Tamao's head jerked back slightly, surprised and secretly envious.

"And they used to hang out a lot, yeah? But then she was the daughter of the contractor of the new dam that they were building there at the time so everyone hated her. Cuz no one wanted our beautiful river dammed up. Our father also ordered Horohoro to stop associating with her so he did. Then one day, during winter, I guess she was sick of him ignoring her so she followed him into the mountains…" She frowned sadly and shook her head. "She should never have done that. Only the natives can even hope of surviving a Hokkaido winter. In the mountains especially!"

She sighed. "It wasn't a surprise. She ended up freezing to death. And Horohoro has blamed himself for it…he's never liked another girl since. Or let himself care for another girl. You know Kororo? She gave that to him. It's already falling apart but he insists on hanging onto it. I get that he still is torn up about it but he's clinging too much to the past. That's why I keep refusing to fix it for him, he needs to learn to let go and move on."

"She also gave him the nickname Horohoro. She's still too much a part of him. And that's why it's such a big deal for him that he likes you. You're the first one that he's really, really cared about since her. Hey, no matter how much you or my brother try to deny it, he's really crazy about you!" Pirika countered after seeing a look of protest cross Tamao's face. "And I suppose that's also why something that wouldn't normally hurt another person really upset him; since you're the first person that he's really opened up to and your entry can be misinterpreted as you using him to get to Yoh…"

Tamao sniffed. "I really had no idea..."

Pirika shook her head fiercely. "No, no, no, it's not your fault. You could've never known that. No one knows about Damuko except for me and Joco!"

Tamao looked quizzically at her. "D-Damuko?"

"Her name was Damuko, I think." The bell rang. "Hey, come on, cheer up! At least you know why, so now you can fix it, right?"

* * *

_Patch Theater—Premiere Night_

"Are you nervous?"

"_What?_ I mean, what?"

"I said, are…you…nervous…?"

"No, no…no, of course not. Why would you think that? I'm the most not-nervous person I know. I don't _get_ nervous. Hah!" Pirika's voice cracked.

Ren stared at her. "Whatever you say." He leaned back to observe the audience on the other side of the curtain. "Oh look, Joco and Tamao are here," he remarked nonchalantly.

"_Are you serious?!_" She shoved Ren away to see for herself. "Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God, oh my God. I thought Horohoro said they wouldn't be here. I thought they weren't going to write a review on the musical this year!" she shrieked as Jeanne took a seat next to Tamao, cradling her camera in her arms. "Oh dear Lord, they're taking pictures too!" She pulled the thick material of the curtains to hide her flushed face. "I think I'm going to be sick…" she muttered woozily and staggered into a nearby chair.

"I'm going to kill myself if you're like this every show. We have six other performances after this, you _do_ know that, right?" Ren warily stated while the hyperventilating girl put her head between her legs and did some breathing exercises. He rolled his eyes. "Hey, watch where you're going!" he snarled as someone shoved past him and Pirika.

Lyserg turned around. "Oh, sorry, I suppose I didn't see you there." He promptly whipped back on his heel and walked offstage.

_Stupid British boy. If he doesn't watch it…_ Ren heard something that sounded like sniffles. He glanced at Pirika. "Um…what are you doing?"

She looked up at him. "I-I'm just trying to g-get in…character!" she sobbed.

"Why are you…crying…" he said slowly and carefully, trying to affect some semblance of concern.

"I'm not!" she hiccupped.

"I'll kill him if you want."

"_W-What_?"

"I'm serious."

"Yeah, I know…"

"Don't worry about him, just concentrate." He lifted up his hand to console her. _What am I supposed to do…? _he thought blankly. His hand wavered around before he settled on her shoulder and awkwardly placed his hand there. "Um…yeah." And left.

"_What the hell?_" Pirika suddenly felt light headed as she straightened up, trying to register that a never before seen species had just shown some sort of affection to her: the extremely rare Compassionate Ren. "I am so confused right now." She scratched her head.

"We're on in five minutes!" a stage hand called out.

"Stupid boys," she moaned. And sunk back into her chair.

* * *

_Joco's Car_

"Did you see how he looked at me?" Tamao whimpered from the passenger's seat as Joco braked at a red light.

"You mean how he _didn't_ look at you?" Her face fell. "Er, what I mean was…" Joco leaned his head against the car's headrest. "But you're right, I've never seen him react like this before."

"See, everyone else thinks I'm just reading too much into it!" Jeanne leaned forward and rubbed Tamao's back.

"He's just being an idiot," Pirika scoffed as she looked out the window. "Don't worry, I'll give him a talking to when I get home later."

"Please don't…" The three other students looked genuinely surprised. "It's all my fault, not his." She closed her eyes and thought back to earlier that day after school when Horohoro refused to look at her in the eyes and thrust the folder containing the musical review assignment at her without bothering to say a word.

And then there was the time when they were switching seats in English and she had gotten to class early and decided to put her backpack down and walk around for a bit. Horohoro had arrived later with some other people and apparently didn't know she was sitting there and proceeded to take the seat next to hers. That is, until he saw who exactly the backpack belonged to, froze, stood back up, and moved a couple of rows over.

And how could she forget last week in chemistry when after he was done presenting his project, she said good job to him as he sat down behind her and was totally ignored. Less than five seconds after that, someone else called out a nice job to him and he turned around, flashed a smile and said _Thank you, good luck on yours! I'm sure you'll be great!_ "That's what he would've said little more than a month ago to me…But no, I had to go and screw it up." She held her breath and counted to ten, praying to God she wouldn't start crying in front of her friends.

"Tamao, don't you ever, ever say that." She sharply inhaled, momentarily flustered by the force that Pirika had spoken with. "Sure, what you wrote was slightly insensitive at most. It's _his_ fault that he's still hung up over what happened a decade ago." Tamao turned around.

"B-But—"

"Nuh-uh, no but's here, please. He just needs a good slap in the face is all." Tamao paled and opened her mouth to protest vehemently. "Figuratively speaking, of course," Pirika hurried to say. She winked knowingly. "You'll know what to do."

Tamao paused and thought and came to the conclusion that Pirika knew how to apologize to Horohoro. "Er, what would that be exactly?"

"You'll know what to do," she repeated. "Now how about you guys tell me how bad I was in the musical!"

There was a collective groan in the car. Joco slapped his forehead as he swerved around another car. "Not that again, please. We already did that for half an hour earlier!"

They all laughed as they pulled into the driveway.

* * *

_Kyoyama Household_

"Yummy, ramen!" Pirika stared excitedly at the plastic bowl of chemically enhanced broth, noodles, and godliness that was currently being heated in the microwave. She rubbed her hands together. "I can't wait! I'm so hungry." She bounced up and down on the balls of her feet.

"Don't stand in front of there. You'll get cancer," Anna warned, more annoyed with the prospect of the kitchen being crowded than concerned about the younger girl's well being. She huffed as Pirika ignored her completely and continued drooling over the ramen. Anna turned to Tamao. "They're sleeping over _again_?"

Tamao enthusiastically nodded. "It was Pirika's first performance and we're celebrating! She did a really good job."

"No, I didn't," the blue haired girl said automatically, not even bothering to break her gaze from the microwave.

"I think you did a very good job," Jeanne called softly from Tamao's bedroom where she was changing into her pajamas. "Would you like to see the pictures I took?"

"_What?!_ No-ahhhhh!" The microwave beeped loudly. Pirika squeaked as she was torn between the cooked ramen and preventing her friends from seeing what were sure to be embarrassingly ugly pictures of herself.

Anna rolled her eyes and plucked the camera from Jeanne's hands as Tamao joined her side. "Wow, Pirika, you look really pretty! Kino did a good job with the costumes."

Anna squinted her eyes. "What are you talking about, you made most of the costumes by yourself by _hand_."

Tamao blinked furiously. "U-Uh, that's not important." The two returned to looking at the pictures. Pirika came sprinting into the bedroom, her mouth crammed with noodles.

"Unnnnghmphhhh!"

"Oh hush," Anna said impatiently, batting her grabbing hands away. "Either Ryu put too much stage makeup on you or you really like blushing when you're acting."

Pirika swallowed and cleared her throat. "I-I don't know what you're talking about! No I don't…? Let me see!" She craned her neck forwards.

"Hmmm, actually you're fine in the other ones. Only in the pictures with that Tao boy are you blushing." Anna shot Pirika an accusatory glance.

"_No, I'm not!_" she shrieked. She grabbed the camera from Anna and colored as she realized that it was true.

Tamao looked uncertainly at her. "Do you have something to tell us, Pirika?" she asked, half joking, half genuinely curious. Jeanne nodded her assent while Anna smirked, slightly reminiscent of Ren.

She looked at all them, wanting to shout a big, fat, "NO OF COURSE NOT!" so that the whole city would know of her sheer disgust, hatred, annoyance with that short, wannabe-cool, way-too-serious for his age, work-out freak, life-ruining, embarrassing, overprotective, extremely attractive—Uh…what…? She shook her head. _What the hell, where did that last one come from?_ _I guess he _is _kinda, sort of, maybe, really good looking—no, stop that!_

"I actually…don't know," she said, dumbly, letting the camera tumble onto the bed.

Tamao's jaw dropped. "_Really?_"

Pirika snapped back to reality. "That doesn't mean yes, you know! Anyways, can we talk about something else?" she asked quickly as she saw that Tamao and Jeanne were bursting with questions and Anna's face was filled with amusement.

Jeanne giggled behind her hand and nodded. "Did you see Ryu after the play?"

Anna groaned. "Oh dear God, yes. He tried asking out Ms. Jun."

Tamao laughed. "Seriously? Oh, no!" She reclined on her bed as Pirika and Jeanne began rolling out their sleeping bags.

Pirika straightened out her pillow. "I should've seen that coming. The way he was basically _devouring_ her with his eyes at the casting party!"

"So what happened after that?"

Anna yawned. "Well she turned him down naturally." The three other girls nodded and waved their hands to say _Well, duh_. "And told him _why_." Anna shot a knowing look at Tamao and Jeanne.

Tamao squeaked and clapped her hands. "So she _finally_ admitted it?" The rarest hint of a smile graced Anna's lips.

"That she did."

Pirika looked at the two girls. "Admitted _what_?" She ran her fingers through her hair. "Am I the only one not in the loop right now?"

Jeanne looked sympathetically at the older girl. "Afraid so."

"Well, everyone in LASNC knew it already…it was so obvious! Especially over winter break. Ms. Jun's going out with Bailong!"

Pirika gasped. "No!" She shook her head in disbelief. "Really? You're kidding…you're…_not_ kidding? Oh my God, this is way too…God! Wow! Bailong. _The _Bailong. As in the action movie star. I've seen all of his movies! _Now I can get his autograph!_" She began smiling like a maniac. "How did they even meet?"

Anna drew her mouth into a straight line as if to say _Someone's been living under a rock_. "He was in a photo spread for _Vogue_ with her and they hit it off rather well."

"Ahmygodreallythisissoamazingdoyouthinkshe'llletmemeethimIcan'tbelievethisishappeningahmygod!" Pirika shrieked in one breath, burying her face into her pillow.

"What?" Anna looked disgusted at the blatant mistreatment of the English language. Somewhere, a timer dinged. "Tamao, come help me."

"More cookies, Anna?" Tamao knew better than to groan. _Because I rather enjoy being alive_.

"Yes, _more cookies_. How else is LASNC going to get a budget besides from fundraising? Everyone likes our bake sales anyways." Anna stood up and stretched her legs before exiting the room.

_The only reason people buy from our bake sale is because you threatened all the other clubs and organizations on campus that if they had a bake sale, then you would put anthrax in their lockers. And your cookies give people food poisoning so I have to get up early every time to throw them out, bake a fresh batch and replace them before you notice._ But of course, Tamao didn't say this either. Because from the last time she still does, indeed, enjoy being alive. Instead, she silently exited the room to follow her cousin.

"So," Anna said in the kitchen while tying her _Kiss the Cook and you DIE_ apron around her waist. "Am I going to have to torture you before I get the story?"

"Um…what?" Tamao froze in the middle of opening the oven door to turn to face Anna.

"Why you and the blue haired idiot haven't been talking to each other for the past month or so," she said nonchalantly while slipping on a pair of oven mitts.

_Past one month, two weeks, four days, and seven hours to be exact_. "Well…" And then the whole story came tumbling out of her mouth before she even realized she was talking.

Anna was quiet the whole time, respectfully listening to her younger cousin recount the painful ordeal. She closed her eyes in sympathy at the appropriate times and pursed her lips and shook her head in pity whenever Tamao looked close to tears. By the end of her story, Tamao was stuffing her face with Anna's cookies, not caring anymore if it gave her salmonella or whatnot.

"That's it?" Anna looked expressionlessly at her.

"Yeff."

"_That's_ what's got you so upset and mopey for the last four weeks?" Tamao stared incredulously at her. "You're kidding."

"…No…"

"Then that's easy to fix. Just apologize."

Tamao reeled back as if she had been slapped. "_What?_ B-But how?"

"Just do what you do best." Anna patted her hand awkwardly in a sudden display of rare affection and walked back to Tamao's room.

"What do I do best?" Tamao asked the empty kitchen, its only response a bright green LCD that proclaimed it was 1:47 a.m. that blinked back angrily at her.

"Hey, Tamao, where did you get this typewriter from?" Pirika's voice drifted out from the ajar door. And then it hit the pink haired girl square in the forehead.

* * *

With the three other girls asleep, a solitary figure stole out of the room, typewriter in tow and headed towards the living room with a flashlight. There, Tamao began to write. And the words spilled out onto the page like the blood pouring from the cuts on her heart.


	7. April

**A/N**: here's a nice, fat chapter for you guys! so it's important to note that i did NOT write the poem in this chapter...i have no idea who did. i know it's not the best written poem with a lot of insight, but when i found it two years ago, i thought it was perfect in its concise-ness and simplicity. this poem is actually what inspired _Unwritten_. and get ready for a lot of Anna introspection

* * *

Broaching a topic is a meticulous and complicated art. It requires skillful tact, eloquence, and not acting like a dumb ass. There are the people who make small talk, asking you about the weather, is your mother doing well, how're Great Aunt Marjorie's weak ankles holding up now that she's taking a jazzercise class and then—_BAM_, out of nowhere, they hit you over the head with a _Oh by the way, you're fired_.

Then there are the people who beat around the bush persistently, perpetually, unflaggingly, tediously, interminably until you're sick to the teeth of it and demand to know what they want. Of course, they respond all wide eyed and innocent with a _Who, me?_ expression on their face, naïveté in their voices, and manipulation in their minds as they give their spiel of _I just wanted to ask…could you maybe…if possibly…I didn't know that you'd get so…just…it's okay, never mind_, to which you are obligated to run your hand through your hair, sigh, and give in.

And who could forget the people who lug it around like an oversized club of sorts, waiting to bonk you unconscious with the gravity of what they said. Or the people who barrage you with reminders of _You know you're my best friend, right? My best, best, best, bestestestest friend in the whole world. I would do anything for you. And you still owe me, remember? I'd like to think that you'd help out your BEST friend, yeah? So… canIborrowacoupleofthousanddollarstopayformyroommate'scarwhichIcrashedyesterday?_

Three very different people at this very moment were trying to figure out which of the classy, tactful approaches would work the best for them when bringing their topic of interest up.

* * *

_Kyoyama Residence_

Let's start as usual with one Tamao Tamamura who it appears has reached some kind of realization, a flash of enlightenment if you will, which has stopped her furious taptaptapping away at the keys of her typewriter. Either that or she has become seriously indigested from all of the underbaked cookies she had downed earlier. For the sake of this story and Tamao's dignity, let's go with the first explanation.

"Ah, Jeanne!" Tamao squeaked as the fully dressed younger girl suddenly emerged from the room.

"I'm sorry if I scared you, Tamao." Jeanne looked worried. "But I think I'm going to go home now."

Tamao smoothed out a few wrinkles from her shirt. "Are you sure? Because if you need a ride tomorrow morning…"

The freshman smiled. "No it's fine. I have a few things to take care of back home…and it looks like you do too." Jeanne motioned towards Tamao's typewriter. "Marco should be outside by now anyways." As if on cue, the older man flashed his headlights outside of Tamao's house. "I'll see you at school tomorrow. Thank you!" And with that, she went out the front door.

Tamao kept staring at the door long after the younger girl had left and turned back to the task at hand (read: staring blankly at the piece of paper rolled into her typewriter) for a good ten minutes or so. "Um…" Tamao lifted her fingers up and wiggled them around as she struggled to focus on her writing. Which was next to impossible.

_Maybe…Do I like him? I suppose maybe there is some truth to what Pirika is saying…but I've never thought about him like that._ _I've never liked anyone else other than_—

"Hey, Tamao, what are you still doing up?" Yoh closed the front door behind him and took off his shoes. "Couldn't sleep?" He flashed a grin at her.

But instead of melting or burning up like she usually did in his presence (much more when he _grinned_ at her), Tamao just gave a small, tired smile. "I guess you could say that…" _…I'm not nervous around him?_

His smile momentarily fell as he saw the distress that Tamao was in: disheveled hair, pajamas all messed up, papers strewn all over the living room table, discarded chip bags all over the sofa. "What's wrong?"

"Huh? Nothing's wrong," she said, her voice cracking a little. "Why do you ask?"

"Well…" He made a sort of pathetic gesture at the miniature disaster zone she was sitting in the midst of. "Just a wild guess, I suppose." He sat down next to her, attempting to clean off the seat of all the food wrappers. "Do you want to talk about it? Only if it makes you feel better." He gently smiled, his eyes filled with genuine concern.

Her heart skipped a beat, touched that he actually cared enough to make that offer. _I can't believe I'm actually having a normal conversation with him—without blushing or stuttering. _

"I think I might like Horohoro," she blurted out.

_And there goes the "normal" part of the conversation down the drain…_

He gave her a knowing look. "Heh."

She groaned. "Was it that obvious? I don't know if I actually do or not…And the complicated part is that he's ignoring me. I think he's mad." She pursed her lips in thought. "And I'm trying to apologize to him, but I don't know how. What if he doesn't accept my apology?" Yoh shook his head. "Or what if he does but he doesn't feel the same way about me? Do I even like him in that way?" Tamao drew her knees up and rested her head on them. Yoh thought about it for a few moments as Tamao kept up the tempestuous cycle of self-doubt and worry in her head.

"Think about it this way…do you like him in the same way you like me?"

She looked up. She paused. She shook her head, subsequently surprising herself.

"See, you care about me like I was your brother, right? But you care about Horohoro in a different way," Yoh explained, standing up.

_He…he's right. Yoh is more like my brother now._ She blinked, trying to register this new perspective of hers. "Umm, but the problem is…I don't really know how to…bring it up with him. Every time I start typing, I get stuck. I have writer's—" She furrowed her brows when she saw a grocery bag on the floor by his feet. "Yoh…why were you out so late?"

"Er, about that…" He made an awkward attempt to hide it but instead tripped over it, spilling its contents all over the floor. "Guess there's no point in trying to hide it now." He sighed pulled out a hard hat and a bright orange vest. "No, I don't have a fetish for bright, fluorescent orange apparel. Yes, I'm working for Manta's dad's construction company," he recited in an attempt to ward off any questions Tamao might have.

"W-What?" Tamao's mouth opened and closed as a million different things competed to be the first thing she said. She bit her lip as her brain attempted to wrap itself around what Yoh had just told her. "But…but your grandparents have a lot of money!" She narrowed her eyes slightly. "And your parents have good jobs too…" Tamao struggled to understand why Yoh, _the_ Yoh Asakura, son of one of the most influential families in the region, and admittedly one of the laziest people she had ever met, would willingly (!) subject himself to hard, manual labor at some of the ungodliest hours of the day.

"You can't tell _anyone_ or they're going to make me stop." His voice lowered. "Well, um, I got into Village University…" He rifled around in his pocket to extract an extremely wrinkled, folded piece of paper and handed it to Tamao.

"Y-You got into VU? That's…that's _amazing_, Yoh! Oh my…wow…and it's such a prestigious school." Tamao's face lit up as she studied the worn out acceptance letter which, apparent from its numerous creases, Yoh had read over obsessively the past four weeks. "Did…"

He put the paper back into his pocket. "Yeah, she got in of course. It's Anna we're talking about here." Tamao smiled, slightly embarrassed that she even thought Anna Kyoyama, perfect student extraordinaire, might not have been accepted. "That's why I got the job. Since no one wants to work the graveyard shift and I only have school in the day time, it pays well and there were a lot of openings. And Mr. Oyamada pumped up my wages too because of everything I've done for their family and all."

"But _why_ do you even need a job. I'm sure that your family can afford the school, no problem." Tamao cocked her head and leaned forward.

"Yeah, I know that of course. But they don't _want_ me to go to Village. They think it's too far from home. They just don't _get_ that maybe, just _maybe_ I don't want to stay in Japan for the rest of my life." Yoh closed his eyes. "This is the _first_ thing that I've ever actually wanted for myself. I mean, they made me do kendo, they arranged my marriage when I was _ten_, they have my whole life planned out for me. I don't resent any of it, I love kendo obviously and I never have wanted to break off the engagement with Anna of course. But is it so bad that I want to think about myself for once?" Yoh sank back into the couch, totally defeated and resigned.

Tamao's eyes widened. "W-Wait…they're not going to pay the tuition?"

"No, they said they would after they had this really long talk with grandpa. But the deal is that I have to take care of finding a place to live. I didn't reply fast enough to get a dorm so now I have to find an apartment…which I did on short notice." Yoh sighed.

"That must be really expensive…" Tamao suddenly felt silly as her problems were dwarfed by Yoh's.

He nodded. "It is. And I want to raise enough money so that Anna and I can live comfortably in America. So I don't have to rely on my family all the time…I don't want her to have to worry. She deserves this…" Yoh's voice trailed off as he slipped into thought.

Tamao's heart jumped as she was touched by the amount of love that Yoh had for Anna…but then her face fell as she realized that this meant they would be leaving in a few months for _America_ of all places. _For four whole years!_ _I can't imagine what it would be like without them around…_

"Well, I've bothered you long enough," Yoh said cheerfully as he packed away his things. "I hope that I at least helped a bit."

"Of course you did. Thank you," Tamao said warmly as Yoh waved and went to his room.

"Thank you." And she somehow she was able to write again.

* * *

_Marco's Residence_

The second of the three people-in-crisis happened to be Lyserg Diethel who, coincidentally (or perhaps not-so-coincidentally) happened to be pondering his own difficult situation at the same time. This pondering manifested itself in the form of one British exchange student staring up, in bed, at his ceiling, wondering _how_ exactly he was supposed to apologize to one certain Ainu girl by the name of Pirika Usui. Admittedly, it was his fault. Admittedly, he had overreacted when he found out that his old circle of friends was somehow connected to Hao. Admittedly, he was embarrassed when Jeanne, soft yet resolute in her demands, had told Lyserg that she would like for him to at least be on good terms with Pirika, who Jeanne had actually become good friends with in the past couple of months or so. Admittedly, in summary, he had been one, huge prick to Pirika who had been nothing to nice to him ever since he came to Funbari Hill.

Lyserg sighed as he reran yet another plausible scenario through his head and grumbled as that one fell to hypothetical pieces. _What do I do? I've already thought of groveling for forgiveness, buying her nice things, worshiping her…_

"Lyserg?" Marco knocked as he stood beside the doorframe. "You didn't drink the tea I set out for you again…"

"British people don't drink tea every single hour, Marco!" Lyserg pulled the blanket over his head. "I've told you that every day since I've come here! Where did you even get that from?"

"Urban Dictionary of course, very credible source." Marco put his hands on his hips. "What's the matter?"

"Does there have to be something wrong with me if I don't want to drink tea?"

His temporary guardian merely stared at him. "You know what I'm talking about."

Lyserg stared up at his ceiling. "Jeanne wants me to apologize to Pirika…"

"Oh?" Marco sat down on the bed.

"But the problem is," Lyserg gulped. "I don't know exactly…_how_…to."

"The question is, young Lyserg, is do _you_ want to apologize to the girl?"

"Of course I do. We were good friends before. And I want to please Jeanne too."

Marco pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose as he got a gleam in his eye. _Uh-oh, this can't be good_.

"As an _experienced_ high school guidance counselor, I am now an _expert_ in all teenage relations!" Marco cried as Lyserg winced. Most of Marco's suggestions to students usually ended in failure since the self-proclaimed expert had _much _more knowledge of foreign cars and guns than of the workings of the adolescent mind. "Now just tell me everything I need to know so that I can formulate a strategy for you! Pamphlet?" Marco extended a brochure that advertised in bright, gaudy print: _HOW TO TALK TO GIRLS!_ _Counselor Marco's Guide to Understanding the Female Gender_.

Lyserg looked appalled as he studied the front cover of the pamphlet. _No wonder so many of Marco's students have turned into social outcasts at school_… "N-No, that's quite all right, Marco. I think I can handle it myself—"

"Nonsense! There's nothing I can't solve!" The older man batted his hand dismissively.

"No, really. _Really_, Marco." He sat up in bed, his heart pounding. "It's quite alright. I'll be fine on my own. _Really_." He began to panic. _I'd _ _rather eat nails than take advice from a man whose definition of casual Friday is short leather shorts and body fitted shirts._

Marco studied the younger boy's face, his arms crossed in exaggerated thought. "Well…whatever you say, young Lyserg!" He slapped him on the back. "As long as you do not upset Jeanne of course. If you do…" Marco made a slitting motion across his throat.

Lyserg nodded enthusiastically. "I wouldn't dream of it," he said shakily, imagining Marco's rage if Jeanne ever came home in tears because of what Lyserg had done. Hell hath no fury, etc, etc.

Marco shot one last dark look at Lyserg before his face lit up in a blinding smile. "Good night. I shall make you some tea to help you go to sleep!" He exited the room, skipping and humming a tune that sounded oddly like "My Girl."

_Why did Funbari Hill High School _ever_ think it would be a good idea to assign Jeanne and me to him? Why? He's obviously not sane!_ Lyserg glared in horror at the pamphlet Marco had left on his night stand for a few more minutes until he got up to get a drink of water.

As he entered the living room, Jeanne looked up from the book she was reading on the couch. "Oh, hello, Lyserg!" She smiled at him as she closed the novel. "You couldn't sleep either?"

Lyserg blushed. "U-Uh, what are you still doing up, Jeanne? Y-You need your rest!" he stuttered, flustered that she had caught him dressed in such an indecent (aka, embarrassing) manner. _Why did I have to wear the pajama bottoms with cats all over them? _he mentally berated himself.

"I just got home from Tamao's house," she said slowly as she observed Lyserg's awkward, jerky movements. "I slept over to celebrate Pirika's performance in the play." It might have been that Lyserg was still embarrassed by the smiling cat faces on his pants, or because the girl he loved was in the same room as him, but he could swear that Jeanne had slightly stressed Pirika's name.

"O-Oh yes. I forgot that you were supposed to stay the night. Wait, then how come you're home?"

Jeanne gave a small smile. "I had a feeling something might have been upsetting you…"

Lyserg blinked rapidly. "R-Really?"

She nodded. "Would you like to tell me what's on your mind?" She patted the open seat next to her.

He sat down. "Well I was just talking to Marco…" She frowned a bit.

"It isn't always a good idea to talk to Marco about personal problems…" she said, half-jokingly, half dead on serious as she motioned towards the kitchen where the guidance counselor was busy at work boiling seven kettles of tea (all different flavors) for no apparent reason while singing a number from _The Sound of Music_.

Lyserg inwardly groaned as he made a mental note to pour the tea later into what he had convinced himself was a thirsty hibiscus plant. "I am aware of that…" He grimaced as Marco's cheerful call of _It's teatiiiiiiiime _echoed into the room. "But I was just thinking of a way to apologize to Pirika…" Here, Jeanne noticeably brightened. "…But I have to admit, I'm stuck." He laughed bitterly.

Jeanne tilted her head upwards, causing a shower of her starlight colored hair (that he had admired for so long, but that's not the point) to cascade down her back. "Oh Lyserg," she said sadly. "Boys never do realize how simple the answer to their problems is, do they?"

Lyserg just wanted to collapse. Throw in the proverbial freakin' towel. Just walk away as a certain young lady by the name of Kelly Clarkson had wailed into his ears by way of his iPod's headphones late at night. Wave the white flag so that the enemy otherwise known as the entire female race would stop bombarding the shit out of his exhausted regiment. In other words, he wanted to give up.

"What…is…the…answer?" he asked in a half-hearted, last ditch attempt, full well knowing that Jeanne, just like every other girl he had asked in the last month, would not tell him. Knowing that she would just look at him in a _What, you expect _me _to tell you the answer? To betray my fellow girl? Hah, in your dreams!_ Knowing that she would want him to figure it out for himself. Knowing that that would probably be the _ideal_ way, the _preferred_ way to go about it so that he can grow as a person and so on and so forth as they say in self-help books. So Lyserg didn't really expect an answer. But what a lovely surprise it was when he was met with:

"Just go up to her and say you're sorry and that you were wrong and overreacted."

First: "….."

Then: an odd sort of choking sound

Later: "Mphh."

After: "T-Th"

Finally: "_THAT'S _the answer?"

His mind was about to implode in on itself. He refused to believe it. He couldn't believe it. He _wouldn't_ allow himself to believe it. And the masculine part of his brain, hopped up on testosterone but mostly anger at himself that he didn't think of this earlier, told him that he _shouldn't_ believe it. _It _is _coming from a girl after all_, it remarked snidely, snarkily scoffing at the idea. Thankfully, the realistic, rational section of his mind stomped this notion out and ordered Lyserg to just accept it already, man before Jeanne threw him another curveball in this game more commonly known as male/female interaction.

"Al…right…then…I'm…going…to…go…to…sleep," he said mechanically as he dumbly stood up, still trying to comprehend the utter and complete _simplicity_ of it all. _Aren't girls supposed to be complicated?!_ _Ugh, they are _so _confusing!_ Jeanne giggled and waved goodnight to him as he walked back to his room, ignoring Marco's squawks of _But what about your tea?!?!_

"Lyserg?"

"U-Uh, yes, Jeanne?"

She smiled and pointed. "I like the kittens on your pajamas!"

Lyserg mumbled something along the lines of _I'm never wearing these again_ walked back to his room as fast as possible without his legs detaching from his body.

* * *

_Kyoyama Residence_

Now, dear reader, let us return to Tamao's humble abode. Anna's room to be exact. The lair of the mistress of FHHS. The chamber of the future, successful _onsen_ owner. The threshold of the she-devil. But never before in her entire life had Anna ever felt this human, this _vulnerable_ as she contemplated her current dilemma the same time she heard Tamao and Yoh's incomprehensible murmurings from the living room and Lyserg was struggling with Marco's offerings of tea some miles away.

She took out her own acceptance letter that had arrived in the mail a month before and stared at it. It wasn't that she didn't want to go to VU. She would love it (or at least experience some type of affection towards it, as Anna still hadn't figured out the complex and all too human inner workings of love yet), considering it was better than she had hoped for. It was prestigious, it was a good school and Yoh had gotten in too—she shook her head. Again, it wasn't that she _didn't_ want to go. _More like…couldn't_, she thought expressionlessly while staring at the piece of paper that was covered in _Congratulations! _and _We hope to see you in the fall!_

_But how am I going to tell Yoh that I…can't go. _Granted, even though Anna wanted nothing more in the world than to forbid Yoh from moving thousands upon thousands of miles away from her (and her supervision!), she knew that she wouldn't be able to bear ordering him to give up his dream. _He has worked…hard…for this_, she thought begrudgingly.

And yet, she was still at a loss for how to tell him her current predicament. She had it all planned out: perhaps take some night courses, maybe she could enroll in an online class, Kino and Tamao would surely be able to help her out as well. She herself had no real need to even go to a school as long as she ended up with a degree, it was fine with her. But first she actually had to relay the news first.

The mumblings from the living room ceased and she heard footsteps passing by her room which suddenly came to a halt.

"Goodnight, Anna."

Every night for the past month he had done this. In the quietest almost too soft to be heard whisper he said those two words without fail, probably thinking that she was asleep, probably thinking that she would never hear it. But she did. She stayed awake until she heard him say his nightly farewell and over time, she found it rather hard to actually fall asleep until he passed by her room. She sunk into apathy every time she tried to avoid thinking about how it would be to spend four years with minimal visits without Yoh. Yoh, who she had spent her entire life with, from the moment of her birth to when they would both die. Yoh, who knew her better than any other person on the planet ten times over. Yoh, who understood what she was thinking without even having to say a word. With his stupid goofy smile, and carefree, happy go lucky attitude that irked her beyond belief and his horrid taste in music. And yet…

She would miss him. Though she would never be caught dead admitting it, she would miss him with her entire being. She had barely made it through September without him, when he was away in God knows what country at that point for his kendo tournament. Only the arrival of Tamao in the beginning of that month had kept her sane, though she never showed it. She kept up her trademark disinterested persona, pretending that she didn't give two shits that her fiancée was halfway across the world for four, grueling weeks. And people believed her. Or rather, they expected it from her. How did that blue haired dork put it again? Oh yes, that she wasn't capable of feeling love. Or sympathy. Or any type of emotion aside from anger.

But the problem is that she was completely capable of doing so. She felt too much, she cared too much, she was hurt too much. And since people _expected_ it from her, she never let it show. Otherwise, how would they react when their leader, their resolute rock in the storm, suddenly was subject to the passing whims and passions of emotion? Everything would fall to pieces. And Anna would never under any circumstances let that happen. She _needed_ order, she breathed it, exuded it, _lived_ it. She was the epitome of structure and form. She loved order to death.

Why did she love it so much? Because it was the only thing that could be depended on in any stage of your life. Families, sure they love you but if you do something wrong then it's _Hello, disownment! Goodbye, Anna._ Lovers? Same thing. They'll tell you that you're their own and only and next thing you know, they're stabbing a variety of kitchen utensils into your back the moment you slight them. Money is transient as it passes hands as fast as quicksilver, possessions fade away over time, awards and titles are forgotten and have to be constantly competed for and renewed. Yes, order was constant, it was consistent, it was perpetual and reliable. It was always there as long as Anna traded in her human side every single day. And it was a price Anna was more than willing to pay.

But then how would she react when Yoh was gone? Recently Anna had started to wonder if she loved order or Yoh himself. Perhaps to her, Yoh _was_ that steadiness she needed. The constancy of seeing him every day, of him setting a cup of coffee out for her when she got home late, of his simple words that calmed her down whenever she was angry at herself, of him saying goodnight at around three in the morning. He was perpetually there for her and maybe, just maybe over the years she had taken it for granted. And that's why she would be so lost once what she had become so accustomed to was taken away from her. That expected familiarity of his eyes, his arms, his smile, his hair, even his stupid orange headphones would be forced from her and flung over to America. America that had millions of people. Of the _female _variation.

_That's_ what she hated. He would find another girl, a sweet little thing who would love him openly, who would hold his hand at school, who would kiss him gently in public, who would actually treat him like he was a human being. In summary, someone who would give him everything that she couldn't and _then some_. And the part that hurt the most is that Anna _knew_ he deserved it. That she couldn't blame him for wanting more, for opting out of the arrangement, for leaving her; hell, if she was Yoh, she would leave herself. She felt disgusting and greedy like she was refusing to share him with anyone else that could give him something better. Like she was hoarding him all to herself, knowing that once he saw what else was out there, that there indeed was _actually_ something else besides Anna out there, that he would run and never look back. He really, truly deserved everything that the world could offer him. And she didn't even deserve him and his love.

Which is why she had to let him go. She sat on her bed and put her VU acceptance letter away and tried to think of a way to tell him what was happening, what was preventing her from joining him. Of course, if she ever told him any of this, how she felt about him and how she was just disgusted with the way that she was treating him, how undeserving she was of him, he wouldn't hear any of it. He would shake his head and say that he loved her and that none of that was true. But Anna knew that it was true. That the only reason he said that was because she had trained him to. She had trained him over the years to react like that, she conditioned him to the point where he actually thought he was in love with her, that he genuinely cared for her. But she knew that he didn't. He couldn't love her. How could anyone in their right mind _love_ Anna Kyoyama? They couldn't. _Who_ in their right mind would? No one. He would say that he loved her because he was afraid. Scared of what she would do to him if he said otherwise. That he would get punished, beaten, sentenced to a month's worth of physical training. That she would lash out at him if he didn't.

_What have I done?_

She heard Tamao pack something up and head back to her room but instead of going directly to bed, she knocked shyly at Anna's door and entered.

"Hi, Anna." Tamao shifted uncomfortably the huge, unwieldy typewriter that Ainu doofus had gotten her for Christmas. She dug at the carpeting with her feet. "A-Are you…" She licked her lips nervously and looked up at Anna. "Are you okay?"

Anna didn't know what to say. She was unprepared for this. She couldn't bring herself to explain why lately she was quieter than usual, more irritable than usual. So instead she just kept silent and exited the room and handed Tamao something on the way out. She stared in confusion at the retreating figure of her older cousin and looked at what she had pressed into Tamao's hand.

A slender, white pregnancy test looked back up that proclaimed in a large, pink positive sign that yes, indeed, Anna Kyoyama's worst fears had come true and no, she was not okay: she was going to be a mother.

* * *

_Funbari Hill High School_

_

* * *

_

_Shooting Star (Spring Edition)_

That Complex Chemical Reaction Known as Unrequited Love

By Tamao Tamamura

It's hard to say what I feel inside  
but there's emotions I can no longer hide  
a change in you I hope I won't see  
when I express these feelings within me

Weird as it may seem to you  
as days pass I keep thinking of you  
Perhaps love is really blind  
For I just can't get you out of my mind

I know it's wrong to fall in love with you  
but please don't tell me you hate me too  
God knows I'm trying my best to change my acts  
and now I'm facing some cold and rotten facts

I'm not asking you to love me too  
and I know my dreams will never come true  
Your warm smile is all I need to see  
And a simple hello is more than enough for me

All I ask of you is some attention  
And just a little sign of affection  
That will help me make my life complete  
Creating memories no one else can repeat

I hope you'll try to understand and help me face reality  
I have never felt like this before  
so please don't say you won't see me anymore

_Free Period_

In the end, Tamao knew it wasn't her best work. The word choice, the syntax, the structure. But she knew that something this important to her couldn't be bogged down by unnecessarily elaborate apologies. She needed something simple, straight to the point and that conveyed her message clearly. And that is exactly what she got. Not too obvious that screamed _Oh hey, FHHS! I'm apologizing to Horohoro! Now everyone knows!_ but not too vague that even he himself wouldn't be able to see it. This was perfect for her purpose and she was content and happy enough about it. _Now, I think it's high time for a cup of coffee and some peace and quiet…especially after last night._ She had barely gotten any sleep even after getting to bed past three. And with what she had discovered about Anna… _Oh my, I wonder how this is going to work out. Is she still going to go to VU? Has she told Yoh yet? Probably not_. She mindlessly flicked out the combination to open her locker. _Poor Anna…_She sighed. _At least I don't have any homework to worry about for the next few days_. _Thank goodness it's spring break tomorrow! _She peered inside her locker for her manila folder.

"Don't tell me I left it in English class," she groaned. "Perfect." And with that, she banged her head against her locker in defeat.

* * *

_Room 522_

"Read it." Joco slammed down a copy of the _Shooting Star_ fresh off the press on the desk in front of Horohoro. "Read it, and tell me how you freakin' feel about yourself for hurting Tamao this bad. Do you have _any_ idea how much you have to do to make her this _vulnerable_? And in a _school wide_ publication too! Yeah, she's nothing like Anna but she still has that Kyoyama pride she had to swallow to _humble_ herself to do this!" Joco was seething mad as he continued. "And you're _still _going to keep up this stupid game of ignoring her. Poor Tamao. That poor girl. I pity her, you know? For falling in love with such a heartless bastard like yourself."

Horohoro didn't move. "I read it already…" he mumbled.

"Oh, you did? So how do you feel? Do you feel proud about what you've done? Did you get back at her like you've hoped?"

Horohoro was silent.

"You're _blind_, man! You have to be fuckin' _blind_ to not see what's in front of you! You have this _great_ girl who actually cares about you for once in your sorry life and what do you do? You're trying to force her out. _That's_ what you're doing. That's _exactly_ what you're doing here. And it doesn't make _any _sense. Horohoro, the guy who always did the right thing, the reasonable thing. You know what, I don't see any reason or logic in what you're doing right now though. I don't get you, man. I just don't get you."

Joco clenched his fists. "She _loves_ you so much that even if it hurts her not to be a part of your life, she'll do it. She'll keep out of your way if that's what you want. If that isn't love, I don't know what is. She's not asking for much in return. She just wants you to _look_ at her and she'll be happy, high as a freakin' kite. You have no idea what you've done to her, do you?" Joco shook his head and laughed cynically. "You don't. See, with girls like your sister and Anna, you'll _know_ when you've hurt them or pissed them off. They'll make it known. They'll shove it in your face that you've done something to them. Even Jeanne will tell you upfront. But no. Tamao's different. She hides it because she thinks that she'll be a downer on everyone else. What word did she use….Oh yeah, an 'inconvenience.' Can you believe that? An _inconvenience_. She thinks that how she feels, what's tearing her up inside for two months, two whole months, man, will be an _inconvenience_ on our good time."

Joco ran a hand through his hair. "Some people might think that her keeping quiet is just her being weak. You know what I think? I think it's her being strong. She's stronger than Pirika and Jeanne and Anna and Kanna and Mari and Machi and Ms. Jun and the twins and Sati and every other girl at this school. She's self-sacrificing. She puts others before herself. And _that's _what makes her a better person than me or you or even that girl you're still butt hurt about." Horohoro's head shot up. "You know, if you did that to Tamao, she wouldn't have followed you. If she thought that if ignoring her is what you wanted, she wouldn't have said anything because she cares about you _that much_. You still haven't learned from the last time, have you? What you did to _Damuko_ is _exactly _what you're doing to _Tamao_."

Horohoro gripped the edge of the desk but remained quiet. "You know, you're acting like Tamao's not good enough to be Damuko's replacement. You wanted Tamao to replace her so bad, to be exactly what you lost ten years ago. But you got _scared_ when she was turning out to be something different. You were scared because she wasn't the same, that she was _different_ and too unfamiliar for you. And all because you can't let go of the past." Joco clenched his teeth. "That's it, isn't it? That's what happened. Come on, say something. Or did I get it so right, so on the nose that you have nothing to say?"

"Tamao is not just," Horohoro just snapped right about here, "_A REPLACEMENT FOR DAMUKO_. _SHE'S THE ONLY GIRL I EVER LOVED_…_until_…until…un-" Horohoro slammed his fists onto the desk, his entire frame hunched over, shaking. "Until Tamao…" he finished off in a hoarse whisper. His fists unclenched and his hands lamely fell to his sides as he took a few deep breaths.

He closed his eyes and leaned back in the chair. "Thank you. I needed that."

Joco sat down on the floor next to him. They sat in silence for a minute like they always did after these cathartic, proverbial slaps in the face. Joco and Horohoro had realized ever since they had met each other that getting a message through the skull of the other was no easy feat—they other usually had to have a huge preachy shouting session to wake the other one up. "Of course."

"I probably would've screwed everything—"

The door swung open. Tamao stepped in, tears racing down her face with an expression that looked pained beyond belief.

"T-Tamao," Horohoro's brain had shut down. _This cannot be happening_. He couldn't handle anything, much more _this,_ right now. "How much did you—"

"Enough." Joco took this as his cue to leave and only when the door slammed shut did Tamao lift her eyes from the ground. "D-Did you really mean that…"

Horohoro's face reddened. _Crap, I didn't want her to find out like this_.

"I'm just a replacement for…_her_." _I knew he could never love me back._

_Wait, wha-?_ "Huh?"

"I heard you through the—"she hiccupped, referring to the thick, metal and wood door that she had been standing behind during Joco's lecture.

"What exactly did you hear?" he asked his question again slowly, trying to ignore what he had begun to suspect.

"T-That I'm just a…replacement for her and…she…was the only…girl you ever…loved," Tamao managed to say, amid her sobs as her small frame began to tremble.

"Tamao," he whispered. "I would never ever say that."

She looked up, her eyes still misty. "But you did…"

He smiled sadly, entirely exhausted. "I said that you're not just a replacement for Damuko. And that I'd never loved anyone besides her until…" His voice trailed off.

"Until…?" Tamao furiously wiped at her eyes, begging herself to not get her hopes up too high. _Oh, please, please, for once let me get what I want…_

He bowed his head, too ashamed to meet her gaze. "Erm…untilImetyouatthebeginningofschool." He coughed.

Her entire face lit up until it was brighter than San Francisco on 4/20. "R-R-Really…?!" she squeaked, unable to hide her sheer happiness.

"Um, yeah," he said self-consciously, scratching at the back of his head. "It wasn't obvious?" He finally looked at her and grinned sheepishly. "Haha, wow, I probably made everything awkward. I mean, it's not like you'd ever like me in a million years anyways so I get it if you don't want to hang out with me any--"

His sentence was cut short by one pink haired girl suddenly hugging him out of relief and joy and excitement and every other feeling she had been deprived of for the last couple of months. "No! No of course not." Her eyes flew open and she released him and backed away a little out of embarrassment. "O-Oh, sorry about that. Well, um, what I mean to say is, that maybe, I really…like…you…too…" Her voice got increasingly smaller until it was nearly inaudible as she started to blush very deeply. She brought her hands to her face as she attempted to hide it.

He gently smiled. "Well, then, that works out perfectly, doesn't it?" And then he pulled her into a hug.

She beamed up at him. "Yes, yes, it does!"

* * *

**A/N:** by far my favorite chapter to write (aka, the chapter where shit happens) things are getting interesting =] so i was rereading the first chapter of this story, and oh boyyyy was it bad. the first chapter is the only one i've retained from two years ago...and thus my writing style is MUCH different. i hope my writing's gotten better since i was a SOPHOMORE haha =) so anyways, my next writing project will be to rewrite the first chapter so that it's more consistent. Reviews would be niceeeee


	8. May

**A/N:** so basically I'm just avoiding college apps right now...

* * *

_Silva's Cafe_

"So, will that be all, _Mr. Diethel_?" Kalim asked tersely, clenching the tiny notepad in his gigantic hands.

"Uh..." Lyserg wanted to laugh at the comical size difference between Kalim's huge, hulking figure and minuscule notepad and pencil. Instead he sighed. Under any other circumstances, he would have. But alas, what's done is done. _Maybe I shouldn't have picked to meet Pirika in a place where so many of her friends work_, he thought sadly as Kalim turned around in a huff after giving Pirika a sympathetic look. All around the table, Horohoro, Yoh, Joco, Ren, Tamao, Anna, the twins, Jeanne and Silva were staring. Half of them were shooting death rays at him while the others looked on in concern at their blue-haired friend.

_How did all of them manage to get jobs in the same place anyways? ...Oh right, I forgot Silva owned the joint_. Said owner was furiously polishing the window that proudly displayed _Silva's Cafe_ and was adorned with various pictures of animals. Lyserg had always wondered how a snake, wolf, buffalo, among other creatures had to do with a cafe, much more attract customers into the place. He shook his head. Silva of course had known his other classmates. _Lyserg_ was the outsider here. He was the only newcomer, a sort of social pariah after how he treated Pirika. Jeanne was friends with the others, Tamao had known Silva and the rest of the employees growing up. Yes, he was totally and completely alone here. Himself against the world, as he liked to think.

He opened his mouth to speak but was quickly interrupted by a

"What do you want." More of a statement than an inquiry. Pirika crossed her arms and looked as cold as possible. "Make it quick, I have practice before the game later," she snapped, pointing her foot at her cheerleading bag underneath the table.

"Um, er, you see...I wanted to talk to you about..." Lyserg made a lame gesture to indicate _Well, you know what I'm talking about_.

Pirika glared at him, showing that she wasn't going to fall for it, and yes, asshole, I _do_ know what you're talking about but I want to hear you say it. "About _what_? Look can you just spit it out already, we've been sitting here for ten minutes already without you saying a word." She glanced at the clock and grumbled.

Kalim gently set down Pirika's no whip, double shot white mocha with extra caramel syrup, _please_ and flashed her a smile. She grinned back up at him and blew at the cup in an attempt to cool down the beverage. Both smiling countenances were dropped once they looked at Lyserg however. The gigantic waiter slammed down Lyserg's glass of water and strutted away. Lyserg frowned at the water which was all Kalim was willing to get for him, despite his earlier order of a simple black coffee...perhaps...please? and looked down at the receipt. Kalim had still charged him for the coffee.

"I just wanted to..." he gulped. "Mmmph." The words got caught in his throat when he saw the twins eavesdropping at the next table over. Lip immediately covered her face while Rap pretended to be scrubbing down the table.

Pirika narrowed her eyes. "I can't hear you."

He saw Horohoro literally steaming. The Ainu boy probably would've killed him by now if it wasn't for Tamao holding him back. Joco's lips were pressed into a firm line while Ren ominously gripped a butter knife in his hand and made very graphic, violent gestures in the air with it. Yoh yawned as Anna rolled her eyes at the scene in front of her. Jeanne's brows were furrowed as she saw Lyserg's attempt to apologize flounder and drown.

He immediately began to feel dizzy as these snippets of his surroundings began to blend together. "I overreacted."

"That you did."

"And I was a huge prick to you."

"Mmmhmm."

"And you've been nice to me ever since I arrived in Japan."

"Keep going."

"And none of it was your fault."

"Correct."

"And I never should've done any of what I did."

"You're on a roll here."

"I'm sorry....?"

"Was that a question or an apology?"

"I'm sorry." Beat. Tentative beat. Scared, anxious, fearing-for-one's-life beat. "Can we please be friends again?"

There are no words to describe what happens next. The author could try to tell how Pirika's face was a veritable sea of every emotion known (and unknown) to mankind. How her face went pale white and then deep, deep crimson. Or how her mouth didn't know whether to start trembling or curl back into a snarl. Or how her hands began shaking. But to everyone's genuine surprise (and Horohoro and Ren's apparent dismay), before anyone could register what was going on, Pirika had launched herself across the table and had thrown her arms around the unsuspecting boy. No one was more shocked than Lyserg (of course). She began sobbing.

"You have NO IDEA how long I've waited to hear you say that!" she wailed. "Or how awkward it was in chemistry class pretending that I h-h-h-hated youuuuuuu!" Pirika bawled her head off as she began babbling about the last couple of Lyserg-less months.

"PIRIKA! You're not supposed to forgive him!" Horohoro screamed, pointing an accusing finger at the green-haired boy. Ren mumbled something incoherently but with enough feeling to send shivers down Lyserg's spine. Tamao and Jeanne took deep breaths and smiled in relief at each other. Lip and Rap clasped one another's hands before being yelled at by Anna to get back to work. Yoh simply laughed and flashed him a thumbs-up.

Lyserg slumped back in his chair and smiled up at the ceiling, barely noticing the crushing weight of the crying girl on top of him or how it was nearly choking him to death. Because finally, everything was well.

* * *

_Kyoyama Household_

Horohoro rang the doorbell for the second time. "Huh, this is weird. They usually answer right after the first time." He was about to try knocking until the door jerked open suddenly, just a crack, as Yoh stuffed his head through the small opening.

"No! Get away while you can!"

Horohoro blinked. "W-What?"

Yoh's face was totally drained and fatigued as he hoarsely whispered. "It's dangerous to be in here. It's too late for me and Tamao and my family, but go save yourself!"

"Yoh...what are you talking about?"

The half-crazed boy opened his mouth to answer but immediately cringed when he heard Anna's voice yell for him. "Madness. Pure madness," he croaked, completely helpless, and disappeared.

Horohoro's eye twitched as he struggled to comprehend what was going on. "Jeez, all I wanted was to visit Tamao and look what happens." He sighed, put his hands on his hips, and tentatively took a few steps inside. And then his jaw fell slack.

The usually neat and orderly Kyoyama household had been turned into a veritable war zone. Shreds of magazines coated every square inch of the house. Fabrics were strewn everywhere. The servants were cowering behind various pieces of furniture. There were at least fourteen phones randomly placed in each room.

"What the _hell _is going on here?" he spluttered. A maid that was crouching behind the living room sofa apprehensively opened one of her eyes.

"Shh, don't talk so loud!" she hissed. "_She _might find us." The maid shut her eyes again.

Horohoro groaned. He decided it would be better if he didn't know what she was talking about. "Where's Tamao?" The maid shrugged her shoulders. "What about Matamune?" She pointed inside the kitchen.

The blue haired boy picked his way through the disaster area that was formerly the Kyoyamas' dining room and he passed several other household helpers sprinting through the hallways for their lives.

"Oh, hello, Horohoro." Mrs. Kyoyama looked up serenely from the book she was reading and smiled. A rather comical sight considering the entire kitchen was in total disarray.

"Hey, Matamune. Um...would you mind telling me what's going on here?"

Anna's adoptive mother smiled sadly. "Anna's got a case of perfect wedding syndrome." She sipped her tea and offered Horohoro a cup. "Since it's only a month away and all."

Horohoro nodded knowingly. "So she's turned into a bridezilla." A shriek followed by a crash of porcelain echoed into the kitchen. "I definitely saw this coming. Do you know where Tamao is by any chance?'

Redseb and Seyram came bolting into the room and dove under the table. "HELPPP!"

"Try the cupboard over there. I forget which one she's hiding in. Hello, Redseb and Seyram. Did Anna try recruiting you for errands?" Mrs. Kyoyama's question was answered by terrified yelps.

Horohoro paled. "This is crazy. Tamao?" He swung open a cupboard door.

"CLOSE IT!" She snapped. "She might see me again." Her whisper was barely audible through the thick wood. "Wait, Horohoro?" She reopened it and peered outside. "What are you doing here?"

"I was just here to see if you were free but...."

"_TAMAO? WHERE IS TAMAO, I NEED HER."_ The sliding door leading into the Kyoyama's expansive back yard slammed open as Anna stepped outside.

"Hurry, now's our chance." He helped his girlfriend out of her cramped hiding space and they sprinted towards the entrance of the house, passing along the way Yoh and Manta who were clinging onto each other for dear life. The four of them didn't stop until they reached Silva's Cafe, quite a ways off from Anna's house.

"She. Is. Crazy." Horohoro panted. "Oh my _God_."

"Try living with her," Tamao whimpered as she placed a hand on each knee and breathed deeply. "Since I'm her maid of honor, she wants me to do so many things for her and if I don't complete them on time, I'm supposed to be punished to the fullest extent of the law."

"What about me? I've become her personal slave!" Manta groaned, slumping over one of the tables Rap had just finished cleaning.

"I'm getting _married_ to her!" Yoh sobbed. The other three silently patted his back as a sign of their condolences.

Silva rolled his eyes. "Are you guys actually gonna order anything or are you just gonna take up space?" He brushed his hands off and closed the display case after sliding in a freshly baked cake. "Oh, and I'll need all of you to come in on Saturday. Got a huge order coming in. Biggest in the Cafe's entire history. It's gonna be enormous!"

Yoh gaped. "Silva, but that's our day off! You can't just do that to us."

The cafe owner uncomfortably tugged at his collar. "Well, I actually can...considering it's for _your _wedding."

"...Seriously...you're going to make me work for my own wedding? Great present, Silva," Yoh sighed.

"Technically it was Miss Kyoyama who did the ordering." He sat down in front of the cafe's main computer and opened a file. "We need a dozen cakes of the largest size, two hundred pastries, apparently we're not allowed to use dairy products in them so I'll someone to go to that new organic grocery store that opened downtown, fruit medley, chocolate mousse, jeez this just goes on and on..."

Yoh whimpered and began shaking violently. Silva looked up and opened his mouth to say something but then the phone rang. "Hello?" His entire face went pale and the three other students looked on anxiously to see what was going on. "Er...w-why hello, there, Miss Anna." The four gaped. "Um...hold on a second." Silva placed his palm over the receiver. "She wants to know if you four are here. I'd advise leaving right about--" He need not have finished that sentence as Yoh, Tamao, Manta and Horohoro raced out through the back door. "Miss Anna? Yeah, it looks like you _just_ missed them."

* * *

_Harusame Field  
_  
"Why are we here againnnnnn?" Horohoro whined fanning his face with a cheaply made program ("Budget cuts," was all Goldva had grumbled when asked about them). "It's hot and it's humid and it's bright and I'm wearing a dress shirt and I'm not even related to anyone who's graduating today--"

"_Stop whining already_. You're the one who wanted to come. Since Yoh's _your_ best friend. Not mine," Pirika snarled underneath her breath. "Well, that and you'd get to see Tamao all dressed up if you came." Horohoro squawked and began to protest but Pirika clapped her hands over her ears and turned away. "Oh, speak of the devil."

Tamao, all bright and fresh looking (much to the envy of Pirika), came running/shuffling up to the row of chairs where the Usui siblings were seated. Considering she was wearing very uncomfortable shoes (especially since Tamao was so used to wearing her sandals and slippers all the time), it was probably more of a shuffle. "Sorry I'm late. Anna wanted everything to be perfect. I think she was just giving me extra work because she's still mad we ran away from her that one day..." Tamao pursed her lips and shrugged, taking the aisle seat next to Horohoro. "Is anyone else here yet?"

Horohoro nodded. "Yup, Joco is getting some water from the vending machine and Ryu is...how did he say it...'on the prowl for a new squeeze'...oh dear God, I can't believe I just said that out loud."

"Jeanne is taking some pictures for the graduation newsletter and yearbook and Lyserg is...with her." Pirika furrowed her brow. "He follows her around like a lost puppy! Poor girl," she giggled.

"What about Ren?"

"He's...._hey_, why are you asking me? It's not like I would know where he is," Pirika said a little too defensively. "He's with Jun and Bailong right now," she muttered unwillingly.

Anna stared across the field to the sea of chairs and makeshift podium and stage were. And the mob of people who had come to see her. Everyone who had been in her life, who had touched her life all contained in that cramped area, waiting to see her. How could eighteen years of her life be summed up and be wrapped up and shipped off in a span of a couple of weeks was beyond her. In the graduation ceremony, the graduation dinner, her wedding next week already, the bon voyage shebang Joco had whipped up last second scheduled the day before Yoh and her…left Funbari Hill. Scratch that, left Japan. No, left all of Asian to travel across the globe to America, a country where she didn't know anyone and no one knew her. Such a contrast from Funbari Hill where almost everyone knew her or at least was acquainted with her name. She suddenly felt like a giant compared to the rest of the school. Some part of her never wanted to leave but she knew that deep down she needed to and had this intrinsic desire to just _go_ out there and experience life.

Anna felt like she was watching a home video that she had watched too many times--she was part of it, she was watching, but she wasn't really _there_. Joco comically tripping and knocking over a whole section of folding chairs, domino style. Lyserg and Jeanne engaged in a private, light hearted conversation, Tamao bowing her head repeatedly in an embarrassed apology while Horohoro merely laughed. Pirika and Ren duking it out in yet another heated squabble. Miss Jun trying to organize all of the seniors into some semblance of a line, while occasionally shooting side glances at Bailong. Goldva yelling at some underclassmen for sitting in the reserved area. Yoh laughing in the middle of a circle of friends, like he always was. Macchi snickering as she tied some unsuspecting freshman's shoe laces together and Kanna and Mari brooding while waiting for Hao to walk across that stage so they could get the hell out of there. Ryu fawning over some poor woman and Amidamaru and Bason standing next to each other, each boasting about their team's accomplishments that year. Redseb and Seyram and Mikihisa and Keiko and Kino and Yohmei all waving at her. Dr. Faust sitting next to Eliza while going into graphic detail about a particularly gory operation to Silva and Kalim (much to their stomachs' dismay). This was it. This was her life. She could take a picture of it and it would essentially sum up who she was and all the people actively involved in her life. And in a couple of weeks, she would be leaving it all behind. Then Jun gave the signal, Pomp and Circumstance began playing over the cheap, crackly speakers of the field and they all began to file in for their last entrance of their high school careers.

"Are you okay?" Yoh whispered as they took their seats.

Anna looked at him. "I-" And promptly closed her mouth.

"Good morning, family, friends, and of course, our graduates," Lady Sati, the principal of FHHS, said. "Today we are celebrating--"

She continued on in her brief speech that was punctuated by smatterings of clapping and a few parts where she choked up with tears. After she finished, "And now I'd like to call up class president and valedictorian, Anna Kyoyama."

As the applause around her swelled, Anna knew that it would be more than okay.

"I'm actually feeling very good." And she walked up to the podium.

* * *

_Kyoyama Household_

"That was an amazing speech, Anna!"

"Yeah, one of the best in my opinion, and you know how many I've heard."

Anna's mouth forced itself to form into some semblance of a smile. "Thank you." She coughed and clapped her hands. "Listen up, everyone!"

The LASNC crew dropped everything they were doing and snapped to attention.

"So since I've graduated, I'm technically not allowed to help out on the last issue and I'm technically _supposed_ to name a student manager right now to take over my position" She cleared her throat. Horohoro's hopes fell as he braced himself for a _Buuuut I'm Anna Kyoyama and I don't follow technicalities so I'm going to take over the last issue and delay my nomination for student manager. Suck on that. Oh, and Horohoro, life hates you._

"Let's get this over with, everyone already saw this coming all along, ever since the beginning of the year--"

Horohoro wanted to listen to angsty, emo music and wallow in self-pity.

"It was so obvious, really--"

Borderline to writing really bad poetry about all his inner feelings.

"And it's expected so--"

He started banging his head against the wall. _Die, die, die, die. Why did I get my hopes up._

"Our new student manager is Horohoro."

Applause. Horohoro's jaw dropped so far down that he could've played Hackensack with it. "REALLY?"

Anna stared at him. "Don't make me regret this, Ainu boy."

"ALRIGHTTTTT!" he shouted, picking up Tamao and swinging her around. "This is the best thing you've ever said to me in my entire life!"

"Put my cousin down or you're going to make her die from embarrassment." Anna rolled her eyes and strode away to Yoh.

He took a sip from his soda. "How you holding up?" he asked, his mouth still covered by the cup.

"Too many people talking at the same time."

He lowered the plastic red cup from his face and shot her a knowing grin. "So you're enjoying yourself."

She drew her mouth into a straight line and tried to effect an air of nonchalance. "Shut up," she said, smacking him in the arm.

He merely laughed. "Oh by the way, I drew up the VU papers for you to sign for extended winter break. Since the little guy's gonna be arriving around January," he smiled, unable to hide his pride.

Anna bit her lip self-consciously as she remembered what had happened in early last month right before he had left for another one of his stupid kendo tournament. _It was unexpected, _her mind attempted to lamely justify her actions. _We couldn't...really...control ourselves._ She snapped out of it and thought for a split second about saying thank you for making the arrangements so early but decided against it. "And how do you know it won't be a girl?" she demanded, half-heartedly trying to sound indignant.

"I don't. It could be a girl I suppose. I don't really care, Hana will be the same to me either way."

Anna quirked an eyebrow. "Hana?"

Yoh placed his hands behind his head uncomfortably. "Er, I was just thinking the other day...maybe...we could combine our names into...well...you know what, never mind, forget I brought it--"

"No, we're naming the baby Hana."

"O-Okay." They sunk into silence for a minute.

"How do you think Tamao feels about..." Anna asked quietly.

"Anna, we've been over this. I'm sure she won't mind watching over him. And my grandparents and your mom will help out a lot with Hana during Tamao's senior year. And my parents even agreed to stay a year to help out until Tamao can watch over Hana after graduating."

"But that's what I mean. It's not fair for her to sacrifice her education for something she didn't even do." Anna tucked a long strand of hair behind her ear.

Yoh furrowed his brows. "You know, I never really pegged Tamao as a big university type. At least, not yet. She was talking the other day about how she'll take night classes at University of Tokyo. She's probably a shoe in for the evening writing program they have. And then my grandparents should be home by then to take care of Hana while she's at class. She's the one who suggested it, Anna."

"I know that," she snapped as if to remind him that Tamao was _her_ cousin and therefore she knew her better. "So she'll do that for two years?"

He nodded. "Yup, as long as we're in college. Then as soon as we graduate, we'll fly on back here and take care of Hana ourselves. So we can be a proper family and Tamao can start going to regular classes."

Anna sharply inclined her head and exhaled. "Life..."

"Is moving too fast?" Yoh guessed.

"No. It's...falling into place."

"Is that a good thing?"

"For now, it is."

* * *

"Crap, we're going to be late! Ugh, my feet are killing me," she exclaimed while taking off the painful shoes Anna had selected for her bridesmaids to wear. She hurried into her room to change into her cheerleading uniform.

"I can't believe we went overtime. Yoh and Anna even split up the actual ceremony and the reception onto two different days to avoid this." Tamao reeled back and forth as she attempted to pull down the back zipper of the unnecessarily complicated back enclosure on the back of her maid of honor kimono.

Despite all their complaints, Pirika and Tamao had to agree that Yoh and Anna's wedding was wonderful. Yoh had picked Joco and Ren as his groomsmen and Horohoro as his best man. Even Pirika had to admit that they were all looking sharp at the ceremony. Anna had requested (aka, ordered) Jeanne and Pirika to be her bridesmaids and Tamao to be her maid of honor. The wedding was lovely in a classic kind of way and the reception was extremely fun, thanks mostly to the incident involving Redseb, Seyram, Ryu's hair and two gallons of glue (don't ask why or how).

But now, they were currently running late for Ren's team's lacrosse championship. "Tamao, are you almost ready?" Pirika called, shoving on her tennis shoes and swinging on her gym bag.

Tamao finished pulling on her jeans and sweatshirt. "Yup. Are Lyserg and Jeanne meeting us there?"

Her phone buzzed angrily as it received a text. Pirika flipped it open. "Aaaah, they're already at the field! We're the last ones--"

Tamao shoved Pirika out the door and ushered her into the car.

Pirika slowed down her breathing once they were on the road and sighed. "Ugh, you know, they chose you to be maid of honor and Horohoro to be the best man way before. It's like destiny or something," Pirika scrunched up her nose at the thought of her best friend and her dorky older brother dating. "It's weird."

"Heh." Tamao was only half paying attention as she tried to focus on not crashing into the other cars. _But you're basically going out with your brother's best friend…_

"Um, Tamao. Can I ask you a question?"

She quickly glanced at the younger girl sitting next to her, expecting her to ask something along the lines of _What's your favorite color? _or _Would you rather eat a squirrel burger or a bar of soap?_ Or at least something of that magnitude.

Pirika took a deep breath. "Can I still hang out with you after you graduate?" she blurted out.

Tamao screeched to a halt, nearly crashing into a car in front of her stopped at the red light. "W-W-What?" she managed to stammer out.

"I mean, if you don't want me to, I totally under--"

"Er, that's not what I--well, I was just surprised that you would want to. Shouldn't your junior year be spent with your friends and going to football games and dances? And I'll be watching over Hana most of the time...God knows taking care of a kid isn't really fun for high school students..." Tamao slowly eased the gas and the car jerked forward.

"But you _are_ my friend. I'm gonna miss all you guys when you go to college so I wanna hang out with you as much as possible. And my other friends are all airheads," she said, rolling her eyes.

Tamao tapped her chin as they pulled into the parking lot. "Well, I don't see why not if you want to." She turned the ignition off. "Okay, let's go. We have two minutes to spare!"

* * *

_Harusame Field_

"Fried rice?" Horohoro offered Tamao a Tupperware-full of said rice, not taking his eyes off the field.

"...You are the only person I know who would bring fried rice...To a lacrosse game...."

"Don't question the greatness of Asian food." Horohoro clenched his plastic spork in anticipation as FHHS regained possession. "Come on, Ren, come on."

"What's going on right now?" Tamao was totally clueless as to how lacrosse, or sports in general, worked.

"The game's almost done and both teams are tied. If time goes out and no one scores, they'll have to go into overtime. And from the looks of it, our team is way too tired to keep playing. So Ren has to make this or else--"

The Tao boy zig zagged around the defense, his legs a veritable whirlwind.

"Come on..." Pirika mentally willed from the sidelines for Ren to score.

Ren's feet skidded to a halt as one of the opposing team's members charged at him. He stopped and flung the small ball as quick as a whip at Manta (who they were forced to play due to a number of injured players). _For once in your life, Oyamada, just catch the damn ball_.

A cheer erupted from the home side as the diminutive boy clumsily cradled the ball. Ren glanced at the clock and broke into a sprint.

"Pirika!"

The Ainu girl shook her head. "Huh?" She looked down. She had been crushing Macchi's arm. "Sorry, I'm just nervous. Come on, Ren!"

The orange-haired girl stared at Pirika uncertainly. "Okaaay....since when do you care about sports?"

Pirika reddened. "W-Well, we might actually win a title for the first time in two decades and-and--"

Macchi crossed her arms over the front of her cheerleading uniform and turned on her heel. "Like you even give a damn about that. Seriously, Pirika."

The orange seconds flicked away on the scoreboard.

"Is--"

"Don't jinx it!"

"Is he--"

"Don't jinx it!"

"Is he going to--"

"AAAAAAAHHHHHH!" Horohoro shrieked, grains of rice spraying everywhere as Manta launched the ball into the air. Everyone in the stands held their breath as the ball hung suspended in the air for what seemed like an eternity. Ren's legs felt like they were moving through quicksand as all members of both teams scrambled for possession of the ball. But FHHS' team captain quickly lowered his stick down, the ball securely nestled in the net and he landed and spun around quickly as he headed towards the goal.

"Score, Ren, score!" Bason yelled, his hands threatening to snap his clipboard in half.

The entire stadium went quiet for an entire second as the buzzer rang out and the scoreboard flickered. Home: 10, Visitor: 9. And then everything erupted into pandemonium.

Bason, with tears streaming down his face, picked up every single player on the bench into one huge group hug. Lyserg and Jeanne looked around, slightly confused, until they inferred that their school had won. Horohoro grabbed Tamao's hands and the two began jumping up and down while the Ainu boy kept yelling "That's my best friend! I know him! He's my best friend!" Bailong and Jun and the rest of the Tao family waved a huge banner that said (much to the young Tao's dismay) GOOD LUCK, REN! Joco led the audience onto the field as students, friends, players, and cheerleaders swarmed together into one gigantic, indistinguishable mass. The lacrosse players picked up their respective girlfriends and swung them around. Perhaps it was the thrill of just winning the championship. Perhaps it was the adrenaline that came with scoring the last point. Perhaps it was because they were the closest members of the opposite sex within reach. Because no other reason would explain why Pirika and Ren decided, in front of Horohoro, Jun and hundreds of their peers, to kiss violently, their lips crashing into each other as thunder began to boom and rain started pouring down upon everyone in the field.

The Ainu boy promptly dropped Tamao's hands and speechlessly gaped at Ren. "What are you doing to my sister?" he screeched. Everyone in the general vicinity turned to look at what Horohoro was blabbering about.

Ren tore away and staggered backwards, looking confused. "I-I-I-" He turned around and sprinted away.

Eventually, the crowd on the field trickled away as they realized that it was raining and decided to go to a post game party or home. Pirika was the only one left as she stood shivering, cold, and crying in the middle of the astroturf.

* * *

**A/N: **aww only two more chapters! =( Review? =D


	9. June

_Oyamada Library_

Pirika, sniffled, still attempting to get over the cold she contracted from that wet, rainy night she would like to forget about on the field. "Well...that didn't work out so well...try writing the element's symbol next to the name I give you, okay?" She shoved a piece of paper at him that she had hurriedly scrawled on before their tutoring session. Her tutoring session. With Ren. Merely a week after that catastrophic encounter they had after his game. _Stupid counseling center! Why did they have force me to tutor him! Why!_ She smacked her forehead repeatedly until he gave her back his answers

As -- Arsenic

S -- Sulfur

K -- Potassium

Mg -- Magnesium

Eu -- Europium

O -- Oxygen

U -- Uranium

Ti -- Titanium

Ar -- Argon

Li -- Lithium

Rb -- Rubidium

Er -- Erbium

Al -- Aluminum

Dy -- Dysprosium

Y -- Yttrium

Si -- Silicon

Te -- Tellurium

Uun -- Ununnilium

P -- Phosphorus

I -- Iodine

Db -- Unnilpentium

She even added an exclamation point at the end of the series of questions, which would look totally random to the inattentive observer. _Okay, so maybe that was a little straightforward, but it--_ Her train of thought skidded to a halt when she saw what he had written at the bottom of the work sheet:

_Nitrogen_

_Oxygen_

_No?! Jeez, someone's mean today. That jerk_. She twitched a little, stung by the bluntness of his answer. She whipped out a pencil and threw the paper back at him:

_Why?_

He looked deep in thought before sighing and giving up.

_Because your brother will kill me._

She saw red. "Who _cares_ about my brother?" she demanded, making the entire library go silent. "Er, sorry, everyone..." The librarian glared at her. "Is that really why?"

He clamped his jaw shut and nodded. "Can we go back to the lesson...I need to pass this final or I'm going to summer school."

"Not until we finish this talk," she snapped. "Is that the only reason why?"

He studied her face. "Convince me and then maybe." He turned back towards his textbook, hoping to continue to study.

_Convince him? Why should_I _have to be the one to convince him?_For once in her life, she was the one trying to persuade someone to go out with her, rather than the other way around. She had come to expect a deluge of notes asking her to be someone's girlfriend every morning after she opened her locker. Every Valentine's Day, while other girls complained that they didn't get a single card or flower or piece of candy from a boy, Pirika was there complaining herself that she got too many requests and little trinkets from the entire male school population. She was typically seen with a whole gaggle of dumbstruck boys following her around campus. Which is why...

"_What?!_" Another angry face from the librarian

Ren slammed his book shut. (Librarian Glare Count: 3). "I said...'Convince me and then maybe.' Did you not hear me the first time, Ainu Girl? Or is your brain still frozen?"

"Why should _I_be the one to convince _you?_" she huffed.

He rolled his eyes. "Because I already get multiple requests every hour from many different girls to engage in a relationship with them. Hence, you would need a lot of persuasion to get me to even consider going out with you."

She scowled while he started packing up his things. "Well, there are a lot of boys wanting to be my boyfriend. So that kind of levels the playing field."

He shrugged, putting on his backpack. "Your loss." He stood up and walked away. "Oh, and I'm not stupid."

"_Come back here!_" she yelled. (Librarian Glare Count: 4). She ran after him.

"Get out of my library! Both of you!" The librarian shrieked. "God, kids these days with their yelling and their teenage drama and their tension that eventually develops into a romantic relationship—"

* * *

_Free Period--The Quad_

"It's really quiet here without the seniors..." Tamao remarked sadly from the lunch table they were seated at, observing the sparsely populated campus as she struggled with a pile of applications for next year's _LANSC_ staff.

"It sure is. When are Yoh and Anna leaving again?" Horohoro kicked a nearby can at a flock of birds on the ground causing them to scatter and fly away before he took out his sandwich.

"Next week." Tamao pouted. "I can't believe they're really going...And Lyserg and Jeanne are going back to their schools on the same day too."

Horohoro gulped down a huge bite of bread, meat, dressing, cheese, and lettuce-y goodness before responding. "Huh...we'll probably never see them again...I mean, Lyserg's going all the way to England and Jeanne's going back to France. That's so far from here...and airfare is expensive and think about the scheduling if we'd ever meet up with them agai--Hey, are you...what....are you _crying_?" He put down his sandwich to stare incredulously at her. "Er, I mean, what's wrong?"

She sniffed. "Well, J-Jeanne and I got to be pretty good friends...and-and-and...to think I'll never see her again..." She began crying.

He passed her a freshman's LASNC application to wipe her tears away with. "I'm sure she'll visit once in a while. I was just exaggerating when I said _never_ again." He cut himself off as he saw that his words weren't of particular comfort to Tamao. "You know what, I'll make Jeanne and even Lyserg promise to come back at least for our graduation next year! Okay?"

She hiccupped and put down the moist, crumpled application. "Okay." She pulled out a red pen and one of LASNC's trademark manila folders. "Let's get started on--"

"Hey! You two!"

Horohoro and Tamao turned to the source of the angry voice. "Can we help you...?" Horohoro asked slowly, resuming his consumption of the sandwich.

"You guys know Ren? The Tao kid?" The boy who was speaking crossed his arms, his eyes flashing. "You hang out with him a lot."

Tamao blinked. He looked a lot like Ren. "Yes, we're his friends. Are you related to him?"

Ren-look-like-with-longer-prettier-hair scowled. "No! I'd kill myself if I was related to that asshole—"

Horohoro looked up. "Hey now, Ren might not be the nicest kid on the block but he's still our friend. Watch your mouth."

He rolled his eyes dismissively. "Whatever. Next time you see him tell him I say it's time that I reclaimed what's mine!" He banged his fist down on the table dramatically.

The two juniors stared at him. "Er…who are you and what are you talking about."

Mini-Ren paled a bit. "Um…oh I'm Nichrom and uh…tell Ren I'm going to be the lacrosse captain next year…not him."

Awkward silence.

"Well, _that_ doesn't sound so intimidating. What are you, a sophomore?"

"Yeah, what's it to ya? That stupid Tao kid took captaincy from my brother last year. He was so humiliated that he was forced to quit the team! He graduated the laughingstock of the school."

Horohoro furrowed his brows. "Er, I don't even remember this…"

Nichrom reddened. "Well, I was—I was exaggerating! But still, I have a bone to pick with him…just tell him the message please." He turned around and promptly bumped into someone. "Watch it, pipsqueak."

The little girl that Nicochrome had nearly knocked over skipped up to Tamao and Horohoro. "Do you know Manta?" she excitedly inquired, her wild hair threatening to topple her over by the sheer size of it.

Tamao smiled at her. "Yes, he's our friend." Horohoro shot her a look. "Er, why do you want to know?"

She squealed. "Ooooooh, because Opacho wants to meet him!" She clutched at her face. "Opacho has admired him for so long! Please tell him Opacho wants to meet him!" She skipped away before either of them could respond.

Horohoro groaned. "Next year is shaping up to be a very interesting year." Tamao laughed. "We're never gonna get a break until graduation."

Tamao tapped a finger to her mouth. "You know actually…I heard that Bason might be replaced next year." Horohoro's eyebrows skyrocketed upwards. "By an American." His eyes widened.

"Whoa, really? But his team has done so well for like six years now." Tamao shrugged and she filed away six more applications.

"I suppose the school figures that Americans are just intrinsically better at everything," she mused, frowning.

"Yeah, just like how they're replacing Marco with an American professor for environmental science next year too." Horohoro sighed. "I was looking forward to getting him. I don't understand why they would do that though."

Tamao stared. "He talked about guns nonstop and told his class that he wanted to cleanse the world and set trees on fire while he was smiling."

The Ainu boy paused before finishing off his sandwich. "I don't see your point."

She rolled her eyes and smiled. "You're so silly sometimes."

"I know. I don't understand how you put up with me," he grinned.

* * *

_Tokyo International Airport_

"Are you sure you've packed everything?"

"Yes, Marco."

"Are you sure you've packed everything?"

"Yes, Marco."

"Are you sure you've packed everything?"

"_Yes, Marco._"

"Are you sure you've packed—"

"Marco," Lyserg sighed. "Even if for some _strange reason_ I _didn't_ pack everything, which is a very, very small chance considering you continually asked me every five seconds last night and checked every drawer in my room _seventeen times_ and insisted on having my address in England so that you can mail me anything that I had left behind, it really wouldn't make a difference since we're at the airport already."

Marco had been frowning while Lyserg was talking. He took off his glasses, cleaned them, put them back on his face, crossed his arms, uncrossed his arms, ran a hand through his hair, closed his eyes, looked down at the ground, and sighed.

"Are you sure you've packed everything?"

Lyserg groaned and went through the revolving doors, leaving his temporary guardian outside to torture Jeanne instead.

"Hey, Lyserg! Over here!" Yoh waved him over to where he, Anna, and Tamao were standing. "Took ya long enough," he said smilingly, slinging his arm around the younger boy's shoulder. "Pirika, Ren and Horo'll be here in a few minutes."

"I can't believe it's all over," Lyserg said quietly, not quite sure if he was referring to his foreign exchange program or the fact that he'd never see anyone for at least a year. He thought about it and decided that it didn't really matter.

"Yeah, I know." For once when the British boy looked at Yoh he wasn't smiling. "I haven't admitted this to anyone but…I'm scared." Lyserg blinked in surprise as Yoh laughed. "Hard to believe, right? I mean it's just college. But just thinking about it scares the crap out of me. But…I'm still excited. I don't understand."

Lyserg nodded. "No, I get what you're saying. I felt the same way before I came to Funbari Hill. It was terrifying…the prospect of moving halfway around the world to a country where I didn't speak the language, didn't know anyone, didn't know the customs, didn't know if I'd make any friends," he remembered. "But then I met you guys." He grinned shyly. "And you were the best friends I've ever had."

Yoh pulled Lyserg into a hug. Not just a man hug that only losers do at school to preserve their masculinity but a real, genuine, _OMG-man-I'm-never-gonna-see-you-again-I'm-about-to-cry_ hug. "You'd better keep in touch…or I'm going to buy a plan ticket, fly to England, hunt you down, and beat you to a pulp."

Lyserg sniffed. "That's the nicest thing anyone's ever said to me." He burst out bawling as Yoh began crying too.

Anna and Tamao stared at the spectacle. "What…the hell…."

"I'm not entirely sure if we got the rest of the conversation. Maybe in context it would make sense," she posited.

Anna shot a look at Tamao. "Oh please. What could ever explain how a violent death threat is the biggest compliment he's ever heard?"

Tamao hung her head. _Isn't threatening death exactly what you did when you met Yoh?_

The two boys pulled away and stopped crying and stood in silence until Yoh asked, "So…have you told Jeanne…you know…"

Lyserg quirked an eyebrow. "Told her what?"

Yoh sighed. "You know what I mean…that…you…well…" He gestured aimlessly as if he could pull the words he was looking for out of the air. "Like…her…?"

Lyserg squawked. "I don't…I don't…I don't know what you're t-t-talking about," he was able to splutter out, his face looking as if he had spent ten hours under direct sunlight.

"It was pretty obvious, Lyserg. Don't you think she should know—"

"_No, never!_...Er…I mean…even if she did know, it's not like she would ever like me back…or that it would matter. We're going to two different countries…and…" He shrugged. "It's pointless."

"I guess. But have you ever cared about anyone as much as do you with her?" Lyserg paused and shook his head. "Now you're never going to know if she felt the same way about you. What do you have to lose? You just said you're going to two different countries." He slapped Lyserg on the back. "Hey, Ren!" He stepped away but turned back before walking towards the newcomers. "Just think about it."

"'Just think about it'? What am I going to even say? 'Oh hey, Jeanne, I've liked you for the longest time and was wondering if you liked me too but don't worry I'm not going to act on it which is why I chose to tell you on the day we were going back to our respective homes and will probably never see each other again'?"

"What was that, Lyserg?" He nearly jumped out of his skin as he saw who had asked the question.

"J-J-J-J-Jeanne!" His face felt like the victim of yet another of Hao's pyro experiments

"I heard you say me name earlier but I didn't quite catch what you—oh this rolling suitcase is really bothersome." She tugged on the handle in a vain attempt to get it wedged out of the door frame.

"Here, let me get that for you." In one fluid motion, he was able to free her suitcase and hand it back to her. "There you go, Jeanne."

She looked up at him, causing the poor boy to blush profusely. "Thank you, Lyserg. I don't know what I would do without you." She smiled.

_Did you hear that?!_ He screamed inwardly at his cynical side. _Did you hear? She doesn't know what she would do without me!_

"You're always so helpful."

_Score!_ The optimistic part of him that still believed in happiness, true love, puppies, rainbows and romance danced in circles around cynical Lyserg.

"And a good listener."

_Mmmhmmmm_. Happy Lyserg nodded with his eyes closed and arms crossed while the cynical one merely rolled his eyes.

"You're such a great friend."

The cynical little voice in him could've sworn that she had emphasized the word friend when she had said that. His optimism faltered as _friend_ echoed around in his head, amplifying in volume by the second.

"In fact, you're like a brother to me."

Now the cynical Lyserg laughed sadistically with an I-told-you-so look on his face. Or rather, he would have if the optimistic Lyserg was still alive. But alas, he was dead in a heap.

He hung his head and gripped the handle of his own baggage. _No. No, I will not accept this. For once, I shall speak up!_ He held his head up. "Jeanne. I have something to say to you."

She cocked her head. "Hmm?"

He puffed his chest out. "Ever since we began talking especially because we got to live together, I have admired you and…and…over time, I think…no…I _know_ that it has developed into a different kind of feeling…and well, Jeanne, I can say now that I really, really, _really_ like you—"

Right at that moment he looked up. And boy, did he choose the worst possible moment to look up. Because what he saw made him snap his jaw closed so hard that the reverberations from his teeth hitting together vibrated around in his mouth for a second. He saw Ren smirking at him. No, no, smirking is much too kind a word. He was jeering and sneering and probably torturing him to death inside his head with taunts. Oh and everyone else was expectantly staring at him too.

"Photography skills."

Jeanne blinked. "W-What?" Everyone else groaned.

"I really, really like your photography skills."

She looked around for a second uncertainly. "Oh…why…why thank you…? I didn't know that you liked photography so much."

He was beating himself up internally. _No! I can't chicken out this time. I have to tell her._ "No, I don't think you understand. I really, really, really like…_you_…r photography skills. I don't think I've ever liked someone else's aptitude in the media arts quite as much as I do with _you_…rs. In fact, I think if you added up how much I have liked everyone else's in my entire life, it pales in comparison with how I feel about you…r finesse with the camera."

Her face suddenly showed that she comprehended what he was (very, very awkwardly) trying to say. "Oh Lyserg, the thing is…is that I like…your hair…a lot too. I just never had enough courage to say how much I really like your hair." Her eyes started shining.

"Really? But you have to understand that not only do I like your photography. I think I might actually love it," he stated solemnly.

She looked up confidently. "That's exactly the same way I feel about your hair."

They both smiled and embraced.

Ren, Horohoro, Pirika, Anna, Yoh, Tamao and Marco stood there, jaws hanging open, eyes bulging out. Well they were until Marco placed one hand on his hip and pumped his other fist in the air with a very loud, "That's my boy!"

The reactions went something like this:

Ren: "WHAT."

Horohoro: "That was…"

Tamao: "The most…"

Anna: "Awkward thing I've never wished I would live to see."

Yoh: "Well it worked, didn't it?"

Pirika: "How did they even understand what the other was talking about? Photography and hair? Really?"

Well, you can imagine it went like that because I only translated their conversation from their unspoken language that is communicated through eye twitches and opening and closing of mouths.

"_Now boarding gate A32, now boarding gate A32, please check in if you haven't done so already. Gate A32_."

"Jeanne, that's us." Lyserg smiled and offered his arm to her which she gladly took. "Let's get back home."

"And where do you two think you're going?"

The two foreign exchange students turned to see seven bodies rushing towards them to choke them to death (read: hug profusely and enthusiastically with a possibility of bruising certain European students' ribs).

"You didn't think we'd let you leave before one last good bye, did you?" Tamao sniffed while hugging Jeanne.

"We'd become too good of friends, guys, come on now." Horohoro smiled while clasping Lyserg's hand.

"I guess you're okay," Ren stated offhandedly while shaking hands with Lyserg.

"You're gonna have to come back next May for these kids' graduation," Yoh said while Pirika and Marco were blubbering and embracing Jeanne and Lyserg simultaneously.

"If you took anything from my house, I'll kill you," Anna told Lyserg while patting Jeanne on the head.

The door swung open. "Don't forget about us!"

Everyone turned to look at who had said that. "Joco! Ryu!"

"Aw, come on, you were expecting us, right?" Joco smiled while pulling up his goggles.

Dead silence.

Joco and Ryu hung their heads. "Really…"

Lyserg and Jeanne smiled. "We were wondering when you guys would arrive." Joco grinned and hugged both of them.

"Outta the way!" Ryu shrieked, grasping the back of Joco's shirt and flinging him backwards. "Oh, my Lyserg!" He picked up the unsuspecting boy and twirled him around. "I shall miss you so! But it never would've worked out between us," Ryu cried, shining tears flying in slow motion off of his face.

"Guh," was all Lyserg had to say (or could choke out for that matter).

"Put. The boy. Down." A menacing Marco stepped up to confront Ryu.

The coddling drama teacher paused in his tearful goodbye. "And if I don't?" he challenged, sticking his chin up in the air.

Marco cracked his knuckles, his spectacles flashing dangerously.

Joco began shuffling to the side. "Okayyy, guys, let's get out of here before they notice."

Lyserg and Jeanne sidled up to the counter to check in and submit their boarding passes.

"I guess this is it," Jeanne said sadly, offering one last hug to her friends.

"Don't worry though, we'll come back to your graduations for sure next year," Lyserg promised, waving to everyone.

And with that, as with all things, they boarded the plane that would take them halfway around the world to their study abroad program center in London, England where Lyserg and Jeanne would check in and spend a week together with the rest of the foreign exchange students before parting ways, Lyserg by train back to his district and Jeanne by plane back to France.

Tamao sniffed and rested her head on Horohoro's shoulder. Pirika attempted to stop bawling while she forced Ren to hold her (so far, she was winning as Ren's resistance was waning).

Horohoro turned to look at him. Turned back. And then whipped his head around again. "_DUDE, I told you to lay off my sister!_" Tamao had to hold him back with all her strength.

"She's…making…me…do…it," Ren wheezed out as Pirika had his throat in a death grip.

"You guys…" Tamao pleaded. "Come on, this is—"

"I'm going to rip your spleen out and kill you with it!" Horohoro roared, poised to spring on Ren at any second.

Ren coughed in response.

"Leave me, alone, Horohoro!" Pirika yelled. "You're not the boss of me!"

"As long as I'm driving you to school, I am!"

"Oh yeah? Well I didn't like driving with you anyways! You smell in the mornings! Ren will take me…right?"

Ren garbled. She loosened her clutch. "I already told you to convince me."

She pouted. "You guys suck." She shrugged and placed her hands in her pockets. "Hmm? What's this?" She took out a piece of folded paper.

_Pirika, I'm sorry for how I treated you. You have been a great friend to me. Hopefully, you will like the gift that I'm giving you (and that Horohoro won't try killing it and eating it)._

_-Lyserg_

"What the—" Ren craned his neck to read it and Pirika turned around to smack him. "Hey! No reading over my shoulder!"

"Gift?"

She stuck her tongue out at him. "Jealous?"

He shook his head and turned to Yoh instead, causing Pirika to scowl.

"Whatever. I wonder what it could be? Apparently something living. And edible." She stroked her chin and observed her brother gulp down an uncooked tray of airplane food he had snagged off of a stewardess' cart. "At least, something that is edible to him," she said, crinkling her nose. "I guess I'll see when I get home."

Tamao glanced at her watch. "Hey guys, it's ten minutes until the flight to the States." She looked up sadly at Yoh and Anna.

Right on cue: "_Ten minutes to boarding gate A18, ten minutes to boarding gate A18, please check in if you haven't done so already. Gate A18_."

As they began making the trek to their next stop, Joco glared at the rest of the group. "You guys really weren't expecting me." He hmphed his indignation.

"You two were late. What else were we to expect," Anna stated dismissively.

"It's all his fault!" He whipped an accusing finger in Ryu's face. "If Mr. Drama-Man wasn't taking so long with his hair—"

"This was my last time seeing Lyserg! I had to look good!" Ryu shrieked defensively.

Tamao cocked her head. "I thought you were over him, Ryu…"

"You know, you could get fired for making advances on a student…" Horohoro said, clearing his throat.

"Oh, what's a little bending of the rules here and there?" Ryu waved his hand dismissively as Horohoro and Tamao mouthed out "_little_"? to each other.

Joco crossed his arms stubbornly. "I feel sorry for whoever you're gonna molest next year in your drama class." He snickered. "'Oooh, I think you're going to have to stay behind for some, eh, _private special improv tutoring sessions_,'" Joco crooned in a very convincing imitation of the white suited drama teacher.

The rest of the group laughed as Ryu adjusted his tie out of habit and reddened as they reached gate A18. "I actually have an announcement to make." He paused for dramatic effect. "I will not be returning to Funbari High School next year." He thrust both of his arms out sideways and bowed his head. "Please, no crying. This day is sad enough as it is."

Everyone just stared as Ryu lifted his head up. "Er, Ryu, it's not that we won't miss you," Tamao said carefully. "It's just that…I don't think anyone was taking drama at school anyways. Or was interested in the play."

"_Eh?!_ What do you mean not interested in the play?! You have two of the spring musical stars standing right here!" He made a dramatic flourish to indicate Pirika and Ren.

"It was against our will," Pirika reminded him.

"And we're sure as hell not doing it again next year," Ren grumbled, cringing as he remembered those painful dance routines he was forced to endure.

"But—you had such a wonderful time doing it during rehearsals!"

"What do you think this is? High School Musical?" Ren scoffed. "I didn't join it because I'm an athlete who has a secret passion for acting and singing and wanted to buck the...." he paused before hesitantly and inevitably quoting the Disney franchise. "Status quo."

Pirika nodded in agreement. "Our performance wasn't to prove that drama can unite people across the high school social spectrum and that we can all have fun times together despite our teeny-boppery small crises."

"And if Lyserg were here, he'd probably say that we're not the _Breakfast Club: Japanese Edition_," Ren said bluntly.

"You two break my heart. Break it into tiny pieces. You didn't even ask why I wasn't coming back!"

"Why are you not coming back," Anna stated monotonously, repeating his words verbatim.

"Thank you for asking, Miss Kyoyama-Asakura." He bowed at her as she smacked him in the back of the head. "Anyways, I have decided to embark on a spiritual pilgrimage with Lady Sati in a few months."

Horohoro widened his eyes. "Are you serious? Who's going to be our principal then?"

"That's not the point!" Ryu shouted. "And for your information, it's going to be Miss Jun. But still, that's not the point! The point is is that I'm having doubts about my direction and goals and purpose in life and I need to sort it out! Don't worry, I shall be back by next February."

"Oh, good." Ren rolled his eyes.

"_Now boarding gate A18, now boarding gate A18, please check in if you haven't done so already. Gate A18._"

Yoh smiled at Anna. "That's us." He turned to face everyone. "See you at Christmas!"

Cue giant group hug.

Tamao tentatively embraced Anna and Yoh. "Be safe," she implored tearfully.

Horohoro hugged Yoh and meekly waved at Anna behind him. "Dude, you'd better email me like every week, man!" Yoh nodded. "I'll try to visit sometime soon. Try not to kill anyone, Anna…please? For me?"

"You know, Amidamaru is going to kill himself once you're gone," Ren said, stating the obvious as Yoh laughed.

"Boss, keep it real!" Ryu slapped his friend on the back.

"Gwuhh, Anna!" Pirika began sobbing again as she reached out towards her friend.

"See ya, later, man!" Joco man-hugged Yoh. "Erm, Anna." Joco gave a curt nod.

Anna did the same. "You know, McDaniel, I'm going to miss you."

Everyone drew back from their goodbyes to gape at Anna. "What?!" Horohoro shrieked. "He's given you more headaches than you can count on an abacus!"

"Who am I going to use as a scapegoat for everything now?" Anna inquired, totally and completely serious.

"Um…Yoh?" Joco cringed, uncertain if that was the right answer.

Anna looked her husband up and down. "I suppose he'll have to do." She sighed. "Let's go."

Yoh cheerful as ever waved back. "Bye everyone!" And thus, they boarded on a new odyssey of awkwardness and adventure. Because what are Yoh and Anna's lives without awkwardness and adventure?

"Wow," Tamao breathed. "They're actually gone." She stood there completely dumbstruck as everyone began heading back to their separate cars. "I think I'm in denial."

"You know, Tamao, we'll survive." Horohoro grinned at her. "And it looks like we're in for one helluva ride next year."

She gave a small smile back at him. "Who says the chaos has to start next school year? It looks like it's going to start this summer."

Horohoro looked at her inquisitively. "Why do you say that?"

"Well, for one thing," she said as she pressed the Garage 1 button on the elevator's interior. "Weren't you wondering where Manta was? I mean, Yoh and Manta are like brothers."

They both exited from the elevator. "You're right! I missed that Munchkin today…Mmmm Munchkins. Can we pass by Dunkin' Donuts on the way home?"

Tamao laughed. "Of course. But since he's on the Welcoming Committee he was forced by Goldva to greet the three new European exchange students. And apparently one of them is staying with me over the summer and during the school year."

Horohoro nodded. "One of them is staying with me and Pirika too. I think Kanna is returning this year again." They both made unpleasant faces as they recalled the blue haired girl's unsavory behavior. "Rumor has it that Bailong is going to propose to Jun soon."

Tamao's face lit up and the two entered Horohoro's car. "Really? That's great! And then Hana is arriving next year too."

"So I guess that even with Yoh and Anna gone, there're still going to be a whole lot of craziness going on. Maybe even more." And then they drove away.

The plane's engines roared to life. Anna, though looking the same way she always does, was startled when Yoh put a hand on her shoulder, a surprisingly affectionate gesture on his part.

"You scared as much as I am?"

For once, she didn't try shooting him down and putting up a façade of aloofness and perfect calm. For once, she stayed silent because if she scoffed out a curt _No_ and shook his hand off, then she'd be lying. Not to him, but more to herself.

The plane began to rumble as it slowly accelerated down the runway and with a groan of its metal wings, it took off into the sky as Yoh and Anna forged their own way for once into a country that had two empty spots left: one for each of them.

Horohoro looked up at the Patch Airlines plane that had taken off into the clouds as he and Tamao exited onto the freeway from the parking structure. He smiled and reached into his pocket to check if it was still there; a piece of paper that contained one line that he was going to publish in response to Tamao's poem back in March but he realized that there was no need for that anymore. He kept it, secretly, to remind him of where they've been and how far they have come:

_I guess my feelings were unwritten._

* * *

**A/N**: oh my goodness. it's over! but never fear, there is going to be an epilogue! Please, please, please, I would love to hear your thoughts and feedback on this story as well as what you would think about a side story to _Unwritten_ (_The Mismatched Adventures of Tao Boy and Ainu Girl_) which would take place in between this chapter and the epilogue and a sequel (_Wild Young Hearts_). Be on the look out for them! If you have enjoyed this in any way, shape, or form, try giving my other story, _Yoh and the Oni_, a read. It's a fairy-tale-ish kinda deal, so it's different than what i usually write. =) Happy days to you all!


	10. Epilogue

_Kyoyama Household — Christmas_

"Hana, out of the way, out of the way!" Tamao skidded down the hallway, balancing a bowl of salad, a journalism book, a bag of leaves, and a sombrero in her hands. She narrowly missed running into the crawling baby as she raced to the kitchen.

"Tamao, calm down," Ryu called from the armchair as he watched his soap opera on the television. He turned back to the show as a chorus of gasps erupted from the outdated speakers. "Yes! Slap him again, again!" He looked at the clearly frazzled girl again. "Why are you in such a rush?" he asked innocently as he took a sip from his almost empty beer can.

"Calm down? _Calm down? CALM DOWN?!_" she shrieked. "You want to know _why_ I'm in such a rush? It's because it's been exactly one year and seven months since Yoh and Anna have been home and the house is still a complete mess. Because they are arriving in four hours. Because Ren, Pirika, Manta, Joco, Jun and Bason haven't shown up yet. Because I have yet to clean up Mic's vomit from the carpet from last week when Joco brought him over. Because Bason and Amidamaru have been arguing on the porch since this morning. Because you are just sitting there, drinking your beer and watching _Guiding Light_!"

"It's _All My Children_…"

"Argh!" She jumped as smoke began to fill the room. "_Who left the stove on again?_" She hurriedly dropped everything she was carrying and dumped water on top of it. "Waitresses…"

Kanna, Macchi, and Mari cowered in the corner as she turned around slowly but was promptly interrupted when the doorbell rang.

"I miss the days when Tamao used to be quiet and sweet and nice. You know," Ryu lamented, his eyes glued to the television screen, as Horohoro nodded. "Argh! _Now_ he tells her he's the father of her child?!"

"I better go and help out before Tamao kicks me out of the house…" the Ainu boy said as he stood up. He opened the door for her.

"Hey guys!" Joco, Manta, Ren, Pirika, Bason and Jun stepped inside. "Might want to avoid Tamao, she's gone into Anna/Pirika mode right now."

"We're right here, you know!" his sister and girlfriend called out.

"Here, Tamao. Go rest, let us finish cleaning up for you," Jun offered.

"Not us!" Joco and Ren shook their heads.

Pirika glared at both of them. "Okay, maybe for a little."

Three hours later, they all collapsed into an exhausted heap. "I hope…they at least notice…that we cleaned up…" Ryu panted.

"What are you talking about, you didn't even help!" Horohoro yelled from the floor.

"I did too!" Ryu countered as he turned back to the soap opera marathon he had been watching the entire time. "Oh, _Days of Our Lives _is on next! My favorite!"

Tamao groaned as she sat up. "I need to start cooking before—" There was a knock at the door. "That can't be—" Her eyes widened as she recounted everyone in the room. _No missing guests. That could only mean…_ "No! They can't be here yet!"

Yoh and Anna who apparently had been too impatient to wait for someone to answer the door walked inside, dusting the snow off of their clothes. "Yoh! Anna!"

All the guests raced over to welcome their friends home. "Er, hi guys, you're an hour early…" Tamao said, completely flustered.

"We know," Yoh said sunnily. "We decided to tell you a later arrival time because we know you'd go overboard in the preparations."

"I didn't get a chance to cook…" Tamao sighed, completely oblivious to what Yoh had just said.

"You seriously hired these three?" Anna said, looking skeptically at waitresses. "Kanna?" Anna smiled. "Oh who knew that one day you'd end up working for _me_?" The blue haired girl angrily stared back at her boss.

"Damn, Yoh! Your hair's gotten pretty long."

"Did you bring us any gifts?"

"How's America? Is there really money growing off of trees?"

"When are you guys coming back home for real?"

"You're so tall now!"

"Where's my child?" Anna said, totally disregarding everyone else's inquiries.

Tamao's heart stopped as she realized that she hadn't seen Hana the entire time they had been cleaning up. "I-I-I-I-I-"

"Um, let's go get him, Tamao. We left him in—" Horohoro's excuse was cut short as a happy baby laugh drifted from out of a kitchen cabinet.

Anna, obviously not fooled, strode over and opened the door. Hana looked up happily at her as he clutched a beer bottle.

"You're letting my child play in the liquor cabinet?" she asked flatly, scooping up Hana and prying the bottle from his hands.

Tamao looked as if she would faint at any second. Scratch that, she fainted right now.

* * *

_Kyoyama Household — Backyard_

"So Jun and Bailong finally tied the knot?" Yoh asked as the two of them watched the newly weds play with Hana. "I bet they can't wait to start a family. They'll have some great, literature loving, karate kids on their hands."

"Or ninjas who kill people with books," Horohoro posited.

"Anna was pretty upset that we couldn't make the wedding." Yoh frowned. "We didn't have enough money to come back…"

"Yeah, we also missed you guys last Christmas." Horohoro stretched. "The important thing is that you're here now."

"True enough. How's university life treating you?"

"Pretty good. Way better than high school for the matter. Though I'm apparently not any better at taking winter exams now than I was back at FHHS." Horohoro laughed as Ren smacked Joco in the back of the head. "Man, just like old times, huh?"

"It sure is. I missed everyone." Yoh drank some of the coffee that Ryu made for everyone. "Huh, this is halfway decent. Ryu ever become a sushi chef like he wanted to?"

"Er…not exactly. Ever since he came back from that spiritual pilgrimage thing with Lady Sati, he's been one big Zen fest." Horohoro shrugged. "At least he's been helping Tamao out with Hana and the _onsen_."

"How often do you get to see Tamao?" Joco took a vengeful swing back at Ren.

"I get to see her every day which is pretty cool. She's here when I come home and we get to spend some time together before she goes off for her night classes." Horohoro colored. "Er, I hope you don't mind…but I kinda moved in here a few weeks ago. B-B-Because your place is way closer to campus than my house."

Yoh burst out laughing while Anna fixed her steely glare on him as she sat down. "Don't worry about it. I'm sure Matamune doesn't mind. She loves you anyways." The three watched Mic poke at Hana with his nose. "Still bent on saving the world?"

Horohoro nodded. "What else can you do with an environmental science major and minor in rhetoric? Can't exactly take trees to court." He grinned. "I'm gonna try to write up some policies to start on reforestation back in Hokkaido after I graduate."

"Did you tell Tamao that yet?" Anna asked abruptly.

Horohoro frowned and scratched at the back of his head. "Well…I was hoping that she'd come with me…I haven't asked yet though. She'll probably just say that it's too early to tell. I mean we've only been in college for four months. I really want Tamao to say yes though."

"You want me to say yes to what?" Tamao emerged from the house woozily. "I can't believe I fainted."

"You've been stressed out for weeks. You probably saw it coming." Horohoro pulled out a chair for her.

"Changing the subject again," she sighed as she sat down.

"As always." Horohoro grinned. "Finish your microfiction for class yet?"

"I barely did last night. It's probably no good," she frowned as she stirred Horohoro's coffee.

"Wow, your hair's gotten pretty long." Yoh propped his head up with one hand. "Yours too Horohoro. I probably wouldn't recognize the pair of you if it wasn't for your hair colors."

"Yeah, I've stopped spiking my hair. Takes too much effort I realized." He laughed.

"Has it?" Tamao suddenly seemed aware for the first time in a year and a half of her hair. "I keep forgetting to get a haircut…" She shrugged. "I think I'll just grow it out."

"They look good on you both. How're your classes coming along?"

"Pretty good. I'm not really sure if I want to aim for creative writing or journalism yet. But since business is kinda slow at the _onsen_ and Hana is well behaved for the most part, I have a lot of time during the day to write. Speaking of which…" Hana crawled over and looked up at his four parental figures before going over to sit down on Tamao's foot. "Hey, there, sweetie…" she reached down to ruffle his blond hair.

"She's a natural, huh?" Yoh cheerfully asked as Horohoro nodded, unable to conceal his pride. Anna hugged her arms closer to her chest. "Er…" Yoh mentally kicked himself inside for saying that. _I can't believe I said that in front of Anna…she's still pretty sensitive about leaving Hana._

The baby boy tilted his head upwards at the pink haired girl before cooing happily. "Mama!"

Yoh, Horohoro, Anna, and Tamao's eyes all widened. The latter's face rivaled the color of snow and her jaw dropped. "W-W-W-What? No! That's your mama!" She pointed at Anna.

The little boy didn't respond and instead tried ingesting the head of a plastic giraffe figurine.

Tamao slowly turned to an expressionless Anna. "He's…never…done…that…be…fore…" _Oh my God, this is the worst thing that could possibly happen. Why, why, why, why—_ She stopped mentally slamming her head against a wall when she realized that Anna was speaking.

"…only to be expected that he sees you as a mother figure since he's been exposed to you the longest. At least when we get back then he—" Anna silenced herself as Hana scooted over and clamped onto her leg and began laughing. "Oh." He gurgled in response. "Well…I…"

Yoh's eyes softened and he beamed quietly. Horohoro and Tamao looked at each other. "Let's get out of here, Hime," he said, winking. Tamao couldn't keep from smiling as he used his old pet name for her.

Suddenly, Ren, Pirika, and a chicken burst out of the house and into the backyard. "Ren, stop it! Why are you trying to kill Morphine? She was a present from Lyserg!" she screamed as she chased Ren who was running, broom in hand, after the fleeing hen whose feathers were oddly tinted pink.

"You said you didn't believe me! So I'm trying to—"

"I knew it! The part about the librarian and the asparagus was true, wasn't it?"

"For God's sake, woman, I've told you a million times that it isn't!"

"So why are you so intent on massacring my chicken? This is the first time I've seen you in half a year and this is what you do?"

They re-entered the house.

"Do we want to know?" Anna asked, still bored as ever.

"I don't think we even understand what's…" Tamao trailed off as she watched Pirika turn around and start yelling at Manta about pre-Industrial Revolution tribe rituals. "I don't want to know either."

"So this is what Ren's been up to since he's graduated?" Yoh raised an eyebrow. "Doesn't look very productive if you ask me."

He cleared his throat, his brows furrowed. "Well, technically he's supposed to be studying business to take over the world but now…" He held up a video camera with which he had caught the entire chase scene. "He is officially my slave with this blackmail."

"What's McDaniel doing?"

"I think he, surprisingly enough, somehow has a gig over in New York. Beats me how anyone could actually think his material is funny. Works with the Orona troupe I think," Tamao relayed as she cleared the table of the coffee cups

"No, I mean, what is he doing?" Anna indicated with a jerk of her head.

"Huh…?" She turned around and nearly dropped the mugs. "Joco! Get down from there!" she yelled at the fully grown man who was cowering in a tree with Morphine.

"Then tell Ren to stop trying to kill me!"

Pirika ran over to prevent Ren from sending yet another person to the emergency room as Joco, who was now joined by Manta, clung onto the branch for dear life. Back in England, Lyserg was in a cybercafe, sending the gang pictures of Jeanne's Christmas performance with the orchestra. Jun and Bailong were about to free Morphine who somehow had gotten stuck in a bush and Mic who was trying to find various ways to eat the poor, abused chicken. Amidamaru and Bason were watching basketball, both of them having monetary bets riding on the outcome of the game while the three waitresses were sneaking a smoke break in the kitchen (with the full knowledge that they would be punished later by Tamao). Ryu opened the door for the just arrived Marco, Faust and Eliza and promptly slammed it in the men's faces once he saw who was there, letting only the blond nurse into the house. Anna, Yoh, and Hana sat in the middle of it all, calmly eating a batch of stale biscuits that had been set out. Horohoro merely laughed and Tamao thought back to the first day of school, amazed at what a few chance encounters with these people had led to. And the Ainu boy and the formerly quiet girl looked at each other and smiled knowing that the future only held better days for them.

* * *

**A/N**_: _oh my goodness. two years of thinking about it and writing it and...it's finally over! i really hope that you have enjoyed reading _Unwritten _as much as i have writing it. _Unwritten_ has definitely been my baby/pet project and has special meaning for me which is why i'll write a side story for it. (I just can't let go) =) look out for _The Mismatched Adventures of Tao Boy and Ainu Girl_which will take place between the last chapter and this epilogue (Lyserg, Tamao, Ren, and Horohoro's senior year). if you liked this at all, consider checking out my other story, _Yoh and the Oni_ which is a retelling of Beauty and the Beast. Fun stuff and, from the looks of it, a fun read.

after thinking about it, i'm happy to say that instead of writing a sequel, i have come up with an outline for a totally new series of stories called _Wild Young Hearts, _which i came up with after reading the first chapter of the sequel to _Shaman King_**. **(Tamao sure has changed in the sequel!) This cycle will take place simultaneously and the stories are all interconnected so they all stand on their own but it will be more fun if you read all of them ;) each story will feature a pairing...well, you can find the descriptions on my profile page. i'm really excited as you can probably tell from this long author's note. okay i'll stop now. but before you go, i'd **love** to hear what you guys think =) thank you so much for reading this story! Happy days to you all.

PS: Go read SK's sequel on Mankin Trad! It's called _Flowers_. DO IT.


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